Beecon University (MOVED)
by LizInABlizzard
Summary: THIS FIC HAS MOVED to SuperbBirb. Please go there for updates on the new and rewritten version of this fic.
1. Chapter 1

Yang Xiao Long had been waiting years for this moment, but this was _not_ really what she expected.

Yang didn't really think she was ever going to make it to college. Her dad was a single parent trying to raise two kids, and she'd never had the best of grades. But when her Uncle Qrow got the job as a police officer working for Beacon University police, she got herself a leg up on admissions and tuition costs since she had a family member working there for at least five years. It didn't hurt that Beacon University had one of the best criminal justice programs in the country, and Yang always wanted to enter the police force like the rest of her family.

Yet, Yang had made it to Beacon U. She had finally made it, after years of public school and working extremely hard, a summer full of buying stuff for her dorm, and anxiously awaiting her roommate assignment.

Yang had a lot of anxiety involving her future roommate. Freshmen were all randomly assigned roommates at Beacon U, but used a small survey to at least match up their sleep schedules and stuff. Yang had heard from some of her old friends that the survey wasn't exactly the best, and sometimes people ended up with roommates that didn't match at all. She'd thought up every possibility for her roommate, and thought about how to handle it… or so she thought.

Yang _hadn't_ thought of the idea that her roommate literally had no information about her out there. Yang had gotten her name and e-mail from the reslife, and Yang had tried to look her up on every single form of social media. Not a single site provided any results for the mystery girl, Blake Belladonna. Even her e-mail told nothing about the girl. It was her school e-mail, the same format that literally everyone else had.

Yang had e-mailed her roommate and gotten a little bit of information from the girl. Her future roommate was was moving in a few days early, and would provide a microwave and a rug for the shared portion of what they would need for the room. Yang had e-mailed her again, trying to get a little bit of personal information from the girl. Blake had never responded.

The single e-mail from Blake had not relieved Yang's anxieties. She couldn't wait to get to school and finally meet the mysterious Blake Belladonna. Yet, when she arrived at her dorm room, her dad and little sister in tow, helping her carry up her things, she found the side of the room furthest from the door and window set up, but no one in sight.

Yang sighed as she looked at her little sister, Ruby, and her dad, Taiyang. They'd been as excited to meet the mysterious Blake Belladonna as Yang was, but not nearly has anxious. Yang decided she would just have to introduce her roommate to her family another day. Given, of course, that Blake actually showed up at some point.

* * *

Blake Belladonna had _always_ hated small talk and questions about herself.

When Blake got her roommate assignment for college, she learned she'd lost her one percent chance to get a single room as a freshman without some form of disability on her record. She'd given her new roommate a quick web search to determine that Blake's roommate nightmares had come true. Her roommate, Yang Xiao Long, was _totally_ a party animal.

Blake couldn't see much without an account on most social media sites, which she had no intentions on making. Yet, from the handful of pictures she could see, she immediately assumed everything about her roommate. She had to be a total partier, who'd probably end up dropping out of college within a semester. When Yang reached out to her in an e-mail, Blake had given as little information about herself as possible. Blake just hoped Yang would be out of the dorm enough so that she could study in her room without having to worry about her new roommate being loud.

Blake was no stranger to having roommates. She'd had many different ones throughout her life, and had always trusted none of them. She was treating Yang no different when she arrived to college. She was sure of that the moment she saw Yang's profiles online.

Blake had made arrangements with the school to arrive a few days early. She simply did _not_ want to deal with questions about where her family was when she moved in. She also didn't want to talk to Yang's family, or Yang, to be honest, but she knew the latter couldn't be avoided forever. She'd considered a few different ways to get out of having to talk to Yang's parents, including pretending she didn't speak English. It hadn't taken Blake long to realize that there was a million holes in that solution, the first and foremost of which being that she _was_ an English major, after all.

Instead, Blake decided to find somewhere else to hide on the university-wide move-in day. Blake picked the place she knew best: the library. Yet, when she arrived there, she found that the library wasn't opening until classes started. With a long sigh, Blake found herself wandering about, trying to find any building with the door unlocked so she could find a corner to curl up in with a book.

After searching for quite a while, Blake finally found her way to the student union, with dozens of various common rooms. Most of the small rooms were occupied by families getting lunch together before departing. Blake felt like the emo kid in public school again, glaring at the happiness of others and hiding in a large comfortable chair in one of the smaller common rooms with a book.

Blake glanced up at the clock. It was 10 am. Yang wasn't due to arrive for another two hours based on their move-in rules, but Blake probably wouldn't head back to their dorm until at least 5 pm. Quickly setting a vibrating alarm on her phone, Blake shut out the rest of the world as she delved into her book.

* * *

The half of the room that had been the plain white and prison-cell-esque was now covered in Yang's belongings. Posters and pictures of her high school friends and her family covered the walls on her half of the room. Her desk, which faced the wall so people walking by when the door was open couldn't snoop on what she was doing, had a small TV, her laptop, a printer, and various other school belongings. Her bedsheets were colorful, primarily fitting a yellow color scheme. A red hand-knit pillow rested along the side of the bed, a gift made by Ruby.

Yang was laying on her newly made bed, scrolling through her phone. All of her friends from high school had uploaded pictures of themselves in their dorm rooms with their roommates. Yang had uploaded a similar picture, but just a collage of a few pictures of the room and a selfie with her family.

Yang glanced anxiously over at the other side of the room. The walls had nothing on them. The desk, which faced her bed, was empty, aside from a locked box sitting in the open shelf beneath the flat top of the desk. Her bedsheets were pure black, nothing fancier than a single lamp on her dresser next to her bedside. Where the hell was this girl? _Who_ the hell was this girl? Why wasn't she here today? She'd mentioned moving in a few days early in her e-mail, but Yang hadn't expected that to mean that she'd be gone all day.

Yang sat up straight when she heard the jingling of keys into the lock on the door. Hopping off her bed, a huge smile on her face, she watched as the door opened to finally reveal the mysterious Blake Belladonna.

* * *

Blake opened the door and found herself staring at a _very_ excited blonde. The girl seemed a bit more human and a lot less stereotype than she had in her profile pictures.

"Hiya! I'm Yang!" the blonde's smile spread across her face as she held out her hand.

The raven-haired girl gave a small nod as she shook Yang's hand. "I'd hope you're Yang, considering you're in our room. I'm Blake."

"I like your sense of humor!" Yang's smile somehow seemed to get _wider_. Blake just couldn't wait for this to be over already.

Yang stepped to the side, allowing Blake to enter the room and put down her small backpack next to her bed.

"So," the blonde girl said, dragging out the _o_ as she hopped onto her bed and sat on the side, "what's your major?"

"English, with a concentration in creative writing. How about you?" Blake asked, mostly out of courtesy rather than actual curiosity.

"Criminal justice! You want to be a writer? That's really cool!" Yang exclaimed, her unending excitement bubbling through again.

"Thanks." Blake's face remained the hard neutral she had trained it to be, but she could honestly not feel more put off by her roommate. Criminal justice. A party girl who wanted to be a cop? The girl was probably dumber than a sack of bricks, as most cops Blake had met in her lifetime were. She'd always had a hard time trusting them, given they'd never taken her word as fact. She'd had so many bad run ins with cops, she couldn't despise a single profession more. Yet, here she was, her college roommate studying to be what she despised the most.

 _Just one year. You only have to live with this girl for one year. If you get lucky, you can transfer to another room halfway through the year! Or maybe you could get three jobs, and save up for an apartment._ Blake's mind was running with ideas as she pulled off her backpack and sat down at her desk.

"Are you going to go to convocation tonight? I heard it's a really cool experience." Yang hopped back onto her bed, trying to strike up some more small talk with the raven-haired girl.

"I don't think so. I don't really do crowds," Blake gave a small shrug as she pulled her laptop from her backpack. Yang noticed immediately that it seemed to be a bit older, and was of a brand that was notoriously cheap – as well as notoriously easy to break. She'd assumed that a writer would have a decent machine to write on, but she shook off the question. Yang didn't want to be rude when they'd just met.

"Oh, come on! It'll be fun. We get a free t-shirt and a silly little electric candle thing. We can hide in a corner, and make fun of people acting like idiots trying to impress everyone else!" Yang smiled widely as Blake glanced up at her.

"I don't know…" Blake sighed, glancing at her laptop, which she had opened, but not turned on.

"I mean, we're supposed to go. It's supposed to be the only time our entire class gets together. Graduation is even separate based on college. I think you'll regret it if you don't." Yang shrugged slightly, a small smile still on her face, which Blake saw out of the corner of her eye.

How could one person _smile_ that much? She'd known Yang for a whole three minutes and the blonde hadn't stopped smiling the _entire_ time. Blake couldn't even remember the last time she genuinely smiled on reflex, and not because she'd forced herself to. Okay, that was a lie. Blake _could_ remember. It was when she'd gotten accepted to Beacon University and she got her ticket out of the hellhole that was her life before here.

Beacon was supposed to be something new for her, right? Something good for her to experience. She looked up at Yang once more. "Alright, I'll go."

A huge smile sprawled over Yang's face, yet again. "Yay! We should probably head down now; our floor is meeting up to walk over together in a couple minutes."

Blake shut her laptop and slid it back into her bag. Her writing would have to wait until later. Somehow, this overly smiley blonde had convinced her to break out of the comfort zone she had already set up for herself and get her out to a stupid school event.

Blake mentally swore to herself that Yang would never manage to do this with a party. Blake refused to compromise her scholarships and grants with such a concept, no matter how much the blonde gave her those huge, genuine smiles.

* * *

 _Yang was right. This is pretty fun._

The roommates had found themselves in as much of a corner they could create in the large circle of freshman that surrounded the stage. Everyone had a t-shirt and a crappy electric candle, just as Yang had promised. People were all trying to impress each other by dancing and singing and rapping like idiots over the background music that played while everyone filed in.

Blake couldn't decide what was funnier: the stupidity of these kids trying to show off, or Yang's jokes about them and impressions of them. Blake found herself _genuinely smiling_ and even _laughing_ at the blonde. These two concepts were nearly foreign to Blake, but it wasn't really on the front of her mind as she laughed at Yang mimicking the dance of a boy about ten yards away.

The two laughing girls were interrupted as a bunch of people ran up onto the stage. Both immediately recognized them as the orientation leaders that had led them through the two-day orientation program over the summer. With them was someone in the school's mascot costume: a giant bee.

Yang could come up with a million puns for Beacon University's mascot being a Bee. Her high school friends had heard them all a thousand times, up to the point where Yang regularly forgot that her spelling of "Beecon" wasn't actually the name of the school, just some stupid pun that Yang had come up with.

Blake hadn't been indoctrinated to Yang's puns yet. Back home, Yang was notorious for her horrible puns, incredibly proud of the number of groans and the occasional chuckle she could get out of people. A sly smile formed over Yang's face as she leaned closer to Blake.

"You know, it sure is great to be at _Bee_ con University." Yang's face lit up with a huge smile, glancing over at the bee mascot and trying to stop herself from chuckling.

It took Blake a moment to get the joke, but she let out a groan once she put two and two together. "Yang, that was horrible."

"I'm notorious for providing the best puns around… Or the worst, depending on how you look at it." Yang winked at the girl.

Their conversation was interrupted by the school chant starting from the orientation leaders, to which the huge mass of people responded. They did the chant three times, and by the third time, Yang even got Blake to join in.

Before they knew it, the President of Beacon University was on the stage, giving some inspirational speech about how wonderful the school was with the new additional class. Yang tried to listen, but was too distracted by the mass of students around her. All of them were potential friends. Yang was overly ecstatic to be here.

Blake, on the other hand, had slipped out of the good mood Yang's antics had put her in. She had suddenly realized the mass of the crowd around them. Her stomach began to twist and twirl. They _were_ in a sort of corner, on the outskirts of the circle. She knew if she took off, Yang was going to ask questions. Blake didn't want to answer questions. She just wanted to attend school and get a degree and then a job. So, she stood there, her heart racing and stomach churning, as she tried very hard to focus on the speech being given so she could take her mind off her surroundings.

The President finished her speech, and all around the two girls, people were raising up their candles. The scene around them felt chilling as the two turned on their candles and raised them up.

"This is really happening," Yang whispered.

"Yes, yes it is." Blake glanced at the blonde girl, who was marveling at the scene around them. Blake couldn't help but feel the same way. She'd finally made it. She'd finally made it to college.


	2. Chapter 2

**AN:**

Holy overwhelmingly positive response! Thank you all so much for all the reviews, follows, and favorites. This was just meant to be a bit of a side project while I worked primarily on my main fic right now, Team BRVE. If you like my writing style, I highly advise you go check it out! With how positive the response was, I do promise to put some extra effort than I was originally intending into this fic.

This chapter's a bit on the shorter side, but I promise they all won't be like this. I hope you enjoy!

* * *

What was not the first time in her life, Yang felt as if she had failed.

She'd really thought she'd made headway in befriending her roommate. Yet, after that first night, Blake was never really anywhere to be found.

Blake left a note for Yang on the second day. The blonde found it after waking up.

 _Yang,  
_ _I'm skipping opening weekend events. If anyone asks, I'm not feeling well.  
_ _Blake_

Yang didn't really blame her on that one. The opening weekend events were supposed to assist freshmen in getting their bearings around campus and get them to introduce themselves to new people through a series of godawful icebreakers. Blake had already been on campus for about a week, and to be honest, who _did_ enjoy icebreakers?

Yang quickly learned that the leaders for opening weekend _really_ enjoyed icebreakers. It was far too hot for any of this, the large group of students baking in the hot August sun as they ran around playing the silly games that the leaders had drummed up.

Despite not having a roommate with her like everyone else, Yang, being naturally extroverted, made friends with many of the other students on her dorm floor. There was Jaune, the dorky computer science major, Pyrrha, on a elementary education track, Nora, the hyperactive sports management student, and Ren, the quiet animation student. There were a number of new neighbors Yang decided to keep her distance from, including the white-haired snobby rich girl whose name she did not know, and the group of hugely muscled bros who she found forming their own pack. Yang and her new friends joked that they'd be in a frat by the end of the semester, and at least one of them would get kicked out of school by the end of their freshman year.

When the hot, sunny day turned into the cooler evening, the events based on dorm floor had ceased. There were a few options for those who wanted to fill their evening with meeting more people, and a school-sponsored block party at night to kick off the start of the new school year. The new group of neighbors dissipated in different directions for the evening activities, exchanging numbers and vowing to show up to the block party to hang out some more. While some of the group headed back to the dorm, and others went to go find the buildings their classes were in, Yang made her way towards the Student Union.

There was one event on that first weekend that Yang had been looking forward to: the Queer Center's open house. The Queer Center was one of Yang's favorite parts about coming to Beacon University. She'd known she was gay for many years, but she had never really been out at home. Too many people around her would have disapproved. Yang had never really been one to care too much about what others thought, but she stayed in the closet for the sake of her younger sister. The last thing she wanted was her nerdy little sister to get bullied any extra at school because of Yang.

The Queer Center was one of the several cultural centers in the Student Union. Yang had visited it several times during her tours of Beacon U. It was no shock to her that the QC was filled with a ton of students, some appearing to be older than freshmen, crowded into the QC for the open house.

What _did_ shock Yang, however, was finding Blake at the Queer Center. The black-haired girl was sitting alone, in a corner, as people talked about the various programs the QC offered. She had not yet seen Yang, who had melted in along the back line of students checking out the center.

 _And here I was, worrying my roommate would freak out when she found out I'm gay._ Yang couldn't believe that she had gotten lucky enough to not only have an accepting roommate, but a roommate who was some form of queer as well.

When the presentation finished, the student staff started tours around the center. A very large bin sat on a table in the middle of the main room of the QC, the lounge, filled with flags for various sexualities that were free to take.

Yang, who'd wanted a pride flag for several years, but was always too scared to buy one, made a beeline the moment the bin had been placed on the table. Most people had cleared out to take tours, but Yang poured into the bin, searching through the various flags to find a regular rainbow flag.

When Yang looked up, clutching onto her prized flag wrapped in plastic, her lilac eyes met the amber eyes of Blake Belladonna, her mysterious roommate.

"Uh, hi," Yang said, startled.

"Hey," Blake nodded, before reaching into the bin herself. She found what she was looking for, a bisexual flag. "If uh, we end up with any mutual friends, could you not tell them you saw me here? I'm not like, out or anything."

Yang's face broke into a wide smile. "Not a problem. I'm not really out either. Never really have been. I was a bit worried about one hurdle at college, but it looks like that's not as big of a deal as I figured it would be."

"Thanks," Blake said with another small nod, ignoring Yang's statement about the hurdle. "I'll, uh, see you later." The raven-haired girl ducked away from the bin, making room for others to grab flags.

Yang watched as her mysterious roommate quickly ducked back into the crowd and out of the rainbow center. For a moment, Yang stood still, wondering why she was so quick to flee, so quick to hide amongst the crowd. A tap on her shoulder caused her to turn around. One of the student staff was trying to pick up some stragglers from the bin and start a tour of the Queer Center. Brushing the odd experience with Blake out of her mind, Yang smiled and nodded, heading off with the staff for her tour.

* * *

Blake slumped in her chair at her desk in her dorm. She couldn't _believe_ that had just happened. She didn't _want_ to get close to her roommate. She hadn't _intended_ on going to the Queer Center's open house. Yet something inside had nagged her to go. _Just go check it out! What could go wrong?_

Blake cursed mentally at herself. What was she thinking? Nothing had gone wrong. Blake didn't have to worry about Yang finding out she was bisexual, and Yang didn't have to worry about Blake finding out she was gay. It had been awkward, yes, but Blake realized she'd never have to have that awkward talk later, replaced by an awkward grabbing of flags.

Blake's amber eyes shifted to the flag resting in the top of her bag, just above her laptop. Should she hang it up? Her walls were pretty bare, especially compared to Yang's. The blonde girl's side of the room was covered in pictures and posters… except for one spot, right next to her bed. It was about the size of a flag.

Blake shook her head. Why was she worrying about this? Blake Belladonna _doesn't care_ about this stuff. Blake Belladonna might be bisexual, but Blake Belladonna wasn't interested in _anybody_. Blake Belladonna was going to college to get a degree, get a job, and take care of herself. She didn't _need_ anyone to help her along the way.

Blake pulled the flag from her bag and shoved it into the drawer under her desk. The desk had two compartments, a small drawer that could properly lock with a padlock, and a small shelf under the desk for holding books and other school supplies. The drawer's built-in locking mechanism could be opened by anybody with a simple twist, but held a hole for a padlock, if a student wanted to keep it locked. Most people at Beacon University didn't lock their drawers, but Blake wasn't "most people".

Fishing around in her drawer, Blake pulled out the still-packaged padlock she had yet to open. Tearing the plastic packaging open, she resolved to herself that she would never again speak about what had happened tonight with Yang. Sliding the padlock through the hole, Blake locked the desk shut. Attaching the padlock key to her lanyard that she kept stuffed in her pants pocket at all times, Blake sighed. She wasn't going to befriend Yang. She was going to get her degree. She was going to get a job. She wasn't going through this. Not again.

* * *

Yang couldn't lie. She'd fallen in love with the Queer Center years ago, when her uncle had first gotten a job with the school and the two sisters had gotten to take a tour of the university. But now that Yang had properly gotten a tour and got to meet the people that came to the QC, Yang could safely say that she was _seriously_ in love with this corner of the huge university.

After the tour, Yang found herself playing card games with a group of strangers. She wasn't the only one playing with strangers, however. No one in the group really knew each other. Small exchanges of names preceded the game's rules, followed by a few rounds of the game one of the boys had introduced as "Bullshit".

Yang wasn't sure if she'd ever had this much fun with people she'd considered complete strangers. The Queer Center, and the people who came here, were pretty great, in her opinion. She couldn't wait to make the halls of this center her go-to place outside of her dorm.

Yang's thoughts wandered to Blake. She'd come and gone so fast. _Where is she? Back at the dorm? Probably._ Yang glanced at her phone, checking the time. The Queer Center would be closing soon, but there was the block party tonight.

Yang looked up to hear the student staff member who had given her a tour explain the same exact thing that Yang had just been thinking. She looked around at the group who she'd been playing cards with. The small group decided to all head down to the block party together. Yang, of course, quickly agreed.

Yang unlocked her phone and sent a text to her roommate, who's number she'd weaseled out of the mysterious girl the night before. Yang had worded it as if it were for in case one of them had gotten lost at convocation, but in reality, Yang had just wanted to have her roommate's phone number, just in case. Blake didn't seem to be one to text very often, or socialize at all very often, but Yang gave it a shot.

 _You coming to the block party tonight?_

Yang put her phone back into her pocket and stood up with her new friends. While they headed out into the night, Yang felt her pocket vibrate. Pulling out her phone, she saw Blake's response.

 _No, I don't really do parties._

Yang stared at the screen for a moment. She'd gotten that much, Blake wasn't a party type. But this wasn't like, a student-run party with booze and drugs. This was a school-sponsored event, with a bunch of free stuff. Still, Yang decided to give it a rest.

 _Suit yourself._

Yang shoved her phone back into her pocket, resolving to not worry about her weirdly antisocial roommate for the rest of the night, and work on her budding friendships with these new people.

* * *

Yang finally returned to the dorm room late that night, her arms filled with free stuff she had gotten from the block party, and the rainbow flag tucked between two free t-shirts. She found Blake asleep, light off, the small figure of the girl facing the wall and mostly hidden under the covers.

Yang put the free stuff she'd gotten down on her desk, changing quietly in the dark room. Crawling into bed, Yang sighed silently as she stared up at the ceiling. She _really_ didn't want a bad roommate for her freshman year. Things had been going so well at convocation. Why was Blake so keen on avoiding her?

As Yang tried to fall asleep, she knew that Blake would probably not be there when she woke up. Yang tried to brush off the feeling, resolving to spend the next day with her new neighbor friends, and maybe even the friends from Queer Center.

Yang was in college. She was going to make friends and enjoy herself. No weird freshman roommate was going to hold her back.


	3. Chapter 3

**AN:**

Little bit (or a big bit) of a shorter chapter this time around! I've got a better idea of where I want to take this fic and a bit of a more coherent storyline. I'm still working out the little things, but expect some more frequent updates to this in the future!

Thank you all _so_ much for all of your support! I appreciate all of the feedback you've been giving me so far. I hope you enjoy!

* * *

 _Beep, beep, beep._

Blake rolled over and slammed her hand down on her alarm clock. Waking up early was no new concept to Blake, but she always tried to keep her extra early alarm's blaring to a minimum with her roommate still slumbering only a few feet away.

Blake sat up and glanced to the other side of the room out of the corner of her eye. Yang stirred, but did not wake. The blonde girl flipped over to face the wall, pulling the covers over her head. Blake had no clue how the blonde managed to breathe, let alone sleep, like that. The quieter girl found it impossible to sleep with the covers above her head. It only took a couple of seconds under the thick comforter before Blake would start to get claustrophobic.

The black-haired girl climbed out of bed with a silent sigh. It had been about two weeks since classes had officially started at Beacon University. She'd avoided Yang as much as physically possible, but the blonde had made it almost too easy. Even when both of them were in the room, Yang made nothing more than small talk and had seemed to stop trying to befriend Blake. Blake had been a bit relieved by this at first, but as time had gone on, she'd developed a bit of a pit in her stomach that she had made the wrong choice. As always, Blake tried to push these feelings to the side, attempting to focus on her need to get ready for the day.

Blake slipped to the side of the room with the closets and silently changed in the dark. The two roommates had adapted to a bit of a schedule, Blake getting up before Yang on almost every day except the weekends. Blake had a week full of 8 am classes, opting for the earliest possible. The black-haired girl had always been a fan of getting her day over as soon as possible, instead of staying up all night studying and worrying.

The sun had not yet risen, meaning that the only light in the room came from the dull string lights above Yang's bed and the creeping light from the hallway sneaking under the door. Blake's eyes were very good in the dark, but she always dreaded the first step out into the bright, 24/7 lights of the hallway.

Blake glanced over once more to the slumbering figure of Yang. Yang had been… not what she had been expecting. The black-haired girl had expected the blonde to be a stereotypical party girl, out almost every night till the wee hours of the morning, unable to hold down her drinks, in a constant state of drunkenness and hangovers, skipping classes, and the other things that rich kids came to college to do and ended up getting themselves kicked out of school for.. Yet, Yang had shown none of these habits, not a single sign of so much as one party. The blonde came home sometime between 8:00 and 10:00 every night, either finishing up on some work or watching internet videos before going to sleep. She was not a morning person; the schedule on the whiteboard on her wall showed no classes before 10 am. Even on the weekends, Yang never stayed out very late. She would hang out with her friends and be back by 11 or so, always asleep by midnight. Yang, to Blake's surprise, arose early on the weekends. For what, Blake wasn't sure, as the two roommates hardly ever talked.

Blake blinked. Shaking her head slightly, she headed for the door, toothbrush in hand, as she made her way to the bathroom. She had to get going if she was going to make it to her 8 am English course on time. Despite the fact that she tried to fill her mind with thoughts from her latest book in her British literature class, a small voice in the back of her head was nagging her.

 _Really, Blake? Judging a book by its cover? You? Out of everyone? Seriously?_

Blake tried to ignore it. She really did. She was a little bit glad she'd been wrong about Yang's social habits, but the charismatic girl was still not Blake's type of friend.

 _What even is your type of friend?_

* * *

Yang's alarm went off. The loud, blaring foghorn was the _only_ thing that could shake the blonde awake. She rolled over in bed, slamming her fist down on the top of her alarm clock as she fought the urge to drift back into sleep. Pulling the covers off of her, she looked around the room. Blake's bed was empty, as always. It was made very neatly, as always. Blake's backpack was gone, as always. Nothing was out of place on the emptier side of the room, as always.

Yang swung her legs over the edge of the bed, reaching into the air and stretching out her back. Running her hands through her long, golden hair, she noticed a couple more knots than usual. A small groan left Yang's mouth. Yang _loved_ her hair, and keeping it in prime condition was her pride and joy. Yet, when she'd had more rough nights of sleep, it always knotted more, and always required so much more care in the morning to return to its perfect state.

Yang picked up her phone, still sitting on the edge of her bed and allowing her brain to wake up. The normal notifications were all there, e-mail spam on her school e-mail from a million different organizations, a few random notifications from various social media on who'd liked what, a couple of group chats that had been active during the night, and a text from… Uncle Qrow? Yang blinked once more to make sure her eyes had read the letters on the phone correctly.

 _Hey kiddo, give me a call when you wake up. No rush, nothing hugely important._

Yang blinked once again, giving her head a little shake to let go of the grogginess that wanted to seep into her brain. After a few more moments of waking herself up, Yang called her uncle.

After a few rings, the line picked up. "Hey kiddo!"

Yang rolled her eyes, despite the action not being seen. "Uncle Qrow, I'm 18. I'm not a kid anymore."

"Kiddo, you will always be my kiddo."

"Just don't call me that if you see me around campus, please?"

"Hmm… I'll give it a thought. Depends on who you're hanging out with. Wouldn't miss the opportunity to embarrass my niece in front of her friends."

Yang rolled her eyes and smiled to herself. He'd never actually do that, but he'd always loved to tease his nieces. Yang had learned long ago that buying into it and getting worked up about it meant that he'd never stop the teasing, so she ignored the statement and moved on. "Why'd you want me to call you?"

"Well, I haven't gotten a chance to meet your roommate yet. I'd like to swing by sometime and say hello and insert myself as a familiar face."

Yang glanced nervously around the room for a moment, almost as if Blake were hiding somewhere. "To be fair, Uncle Qrow, not a whole lot of people have met her. She doesn't exactly talk a lot, or socialize a lot, or let anyone into her life, really. She just kind of… exists, on the other half of the room."

"Yang, are you having roommate troubles, already? My charismatic niece, the biggest extrovert in the world, is having roommate troubles?"

"No, I mean, sort of, I mean, I don't know. I tried to be really nice and stuff on the first weekend. I got her laughing and talking and out to convocation and being friendly and everything. She wasn't around on move-in day, so Dad and Ruby didn't get to meet her. After that, she was kind of… weird. Like, I don't know. We ran into each other in public and she got really weird about me saying hello and she's barely spoken to me since. We just kind of occasionally make small talk or whatever. She's all like quiet and mysterious and I don't think she goes anywhere after classes, I think she just comes back here and sits in this room all day. I don't think she has any friends, either."

"Well, kiddo, it sounds like she could _use_ a friend."

"I've tried! She always has an excuse when I invite her to go grab food at the dining hall or come do something in the middle of the day, or she just doesn't respond to my texts. If I'm the most _extroverted_ person in the world, I think she might be the most _introverted_." Yang sighed, feeling like the situation was hopeless.

"Introverted or not, I'd still like to come swing by and meet her. Just in case something ever happens, I'd like to be a face she knows she can trust."

"Uncle Qrow, I don't think she trusts anybody. Seriously. She like, padlocks her desk and stuff."

"My point still stands. I'd like to meet her."

"Alright, alright. I'll talk to her about it later today, okay? I'll get back to you when I know of a time and stuff."

"Yang, one more thing."

"Yeah?"

"Try not to be so judgmental about things. I'm sure she has her reasons for her actions. You just don't know them. Whether or not you ever learn the reasons, that's to be determined. Everyone's a little bit weird to everyone else. Maybe instead of trying to invite her out, try talking to her about something you know _she_ likes."

Yang paused for a moment, guilt filling her heart. Trying not to let her uncle hear it in her voice, she went with a quick-witted response. "Uncle Qrow, you're like, 85 years old or something. I can't believe my uncle is giving me roommate advice."

"Yang Xiao Long, are you implying that I am _old_?"

"Maybe just a little."

"Well, you should know I'm not _that_ old. I was a college student once too, you know. Besides, you would not _believe_ the number of incidents that come through at the station between roommates that are just due to a lack of communication. Just, give it a shot. And let me know how it goes afterwards. I'd like to add a star to my 'roommate problems fixed' list."

"Alright, alright. I will. I really have to go get ready for class now."

"Good, don't be late. Love you, kiddo."

"Love you too, Uncle Qrow."

The line disconnected. Yang tossed her phone onto her bed. She _had_ been a little quick to judge. Uncle Qrow was right, yet again. Sighing as she glanced around the room one more time, Yang came to a decision.

Blake needed a friend. Yang would figure out how to be a friend, or if she couldn't, at least find the black-haired girl someone she could relate to.

Yang had to at least give it one more shot.


	4. Chapter 4

**AN:**

I just wanted to take a moment to wish everyone a Merry Christmas/Happy Hanukkah/whatever holiday you celebrate/a good day if you don't celebrate any or you're reading this any time other than the day I published it!

One brief comment on this chapter: Qrow is a bit OOC. I've decided to opt out of the drunk uncle as he's supposed to be the model cop. This is more of a real-world AU, and while I'm sure Cop Qrow drinks on his downtime, you'll find him to be a bit more of the "goofy uncle" than the "drunk uncle".

I've found myself really enjoying this story. I've got quite a few ideas on how I want to take it, but at the same time, I'm thinking about adjusting certain things about my writing style midway. So, if things start to change in tiny ways, you know what's going on!

I can't thank you all enough for the support. Writing (and publishing) fanfics is still fairly new to me. I used to write years ago but I only started to publish about a month ago. Two of my stories got a pretty decent response, but this fic in particular has been overwhelmingly positive to someone who really only got into this world about a month ago!

I'll stop rambling now. Thank you all so much!

* * *

Blake could _not_ believe she'd let herself get roped into this.

It was a cool afternoon in late summer, so close to early fall that it almost felt like the leaves would start to decay from the trees any moment. Yang and Blake were sitting outside of a café, quietly sipping coffee and tea while waiting for Yang's uncle to finally show up.

The raven-haired girl had just been sitting in the dorm room when Yang got back from her last class of the day and presented Blake with the idea of meeting the blonde's uncle. Blake hadn't been too into it. She didn't like to talk about family, and she didn't like cops. So, what did Yang suggest? Blake meeting (one of) Yang's cop family members.

Yet, here Blake was, sitting at this café, waiting with Yang for her uncle to show up. The blonde had assured her it was just some parental thing. Something about her uncle wanting Blake to have a "friendly face" on the campus police force who she could trust just in case anything ever happened.

 _Trust a cop? Yeah right._

Blake found herself looking a huge construction fence across the street from the café. The trademark construction fences that surrounded all construction on campus were plastered in the school's name and repeated images of students enjoying their lives at Beacon University in obviously staged moments. Most of the construction projects around campus also had the name of the project plastered on the plastic that blocked people from seeing what was inside. Yet, this construction project had no indication of its intentions.

"Do you know what they're building there?" Blake asked her roommate, thinking out loud as she played with the string of her teabag.

Yang almost spit out her coffee when Blake _finally_ said something. They'd been sitting in dead silence for almost fifteen minutes, on top of a silent ten-minute walk to the café. Uncle Qrow had been late, as always. This silence was practically unbearable, but Yang was trying to convince herself that letting Blake get comfortable first was probably the best course of action.

Yang looked over to the construction site and blinked. She'd been prepared to read the fence and inform Blake, but no actual information was anywhere to be found. Yang had prided herself in learning as much about campus pop culture as possible, but she'd never even noticed that this site had no information. "I… don't know," she stammered, furrowing her brow in confusion.

"That, girls, is the BU Crater." The voice of an old man suddenly spoke behind Blake, causing the black-haired girl to jump.

"Uncle Qrow!" Yang said excitedly, smiling very widely at the source of the voice, who stood behind Blake.

Blake turned around to see a tall, middle aged man in a campus police uniform smiling behind them with a cup of coffee in one hand and a donut in the other. His carefully combed black hair was only a shade or two lighter than Blake's, but his slightly scruffy beard showed signs of greying hair. A similar goofy grin that Blake had grown accustomed to seeing on Yang was spread across his face.

The man sat down with a chuckle. "There used to be dorms there, called BU Commons. It was honors housing, mostly singles. Great for introverted nerds. Two years ago the school demolished it for a new recreation center, but some financial problems came up, so they halted the project. There's still a giant crater in the Earth, from when they demolished it, so most students and staff call it BU Crater nowadays. There's even some talk of renaming this café to Crater Café. Although, rumors are just that. Rumors." He offered a shrug as he took a sip of his coffee.

"Do you think they'll ever complete it?" Yang asked, placing down her coffee.

Qrow shrugged again. "Not sure. Some of the boys at the station don't think it'll happen with the current administration. I think they'll make a political push for more funds and get it through. But enough of that."

The man directed his attention to a silent, staring Blake. "I'm Qrow Branwen. It's nice to finally get to meet you." Qrow held his hand out to the quiet girl.

"Blake Belladonna," the girl said with a nod and a slightly-forced soft smile as she shook the cop's hand. This might have been the first time in her life a cop actually _shook her hand_.

Qrow gave a smirk to the black-haired girl, glancing momentarily at Yang before turning back to Blake. "I've got this secret hidden skill, I can _totally_ guess what your major is."

Yang let out a small groan, causing Blake to glance between the two as she rose an eyebrow. "Oh?"

The cop closed his eyes and scrunched his eyebrows together. He rubbed his temple and hummed slightly. Blake glanced at Yang, who mouthed _Just go with it_ to her roommate.

"I'm getting… College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Am I right?" One of Qrow's eyes opened as he looked towards Blake.

The black-haired girl chuckled slightly. "You're right."

Qrow's eye snapped back shut as he continued his theatrics. "Humanities. Must be one of the humanities."

"Correct again." Blake took a sip of her tea and rose another eyebrow at Yang, who simply rolled her eyes and grinned slightly at her uncle.

"Hmm… English?"

"That would be my major. But can you guess my concentration?"

"Concentration?" Qrow's eyes shot open to look at a smirking Blake, who was sipping her tea carefully through a grinning mouth.

"English majors have to have a concentration in some area of literature or writing. It'd be too broad of a curriculum otherwise."

"Alright, alright. American literature?" Qrow took a wild guess.

Yang chuckled, stirring her coffee with small stirrer. "You've stumped the all mighty Qrow. Congratulations!"

Qrow's face fell. "I was wrong?"

Blake gave a small chuckle herself. "Creative writing. You almost had all of it though."

"Aha, an author! You certainly give an author vibe." Qrow lifted his coffee to his lips, giving the black-haired girl a smirk.

"I get that a lot." Blake shrugged, forcing a small smile as she placed her tea down on the table.

"So, Uncle Qrow, anything exciting happen so far this semester?" Yang asked.

The cop gave a shrug. "It's been a bit calmer this year. Less of a party scene, all in all. I haven't been on many party stings, but the new Captain is really trying to crack down on it all. I'm _especially_ glad to hear no one picked my niece up on one of those stings." Two red eyes flashed towards the blonde.

Yang dramatically placed a hand over her heart. "Me? Little Yang? A partier? Why, I never! I don't know where on Earth you would get _that_ idea, my dearest Uncle Qrow."

The two family members burst out laughing, momentarily forgetting about Blake's presence at the table.

"You know I told you I was taking this seriously. No more parties. Shockingly, there's a ton of ways to have fun without them." The blonde flipped her long hair over her shoulder.

"Almost like me and your old man have been telling you that for _years_."

Yang scoffed at her uncle's remark. "Puh- _lease_. Dad was practically encouraging me to get it all out in high school when he could still get me off the hook as a minor."

"What about you, Blake? Much of a partier? I promise I won't tell anyone if the answer is yes." Qrow let out a chuckle as he pushed back his cropped back hair.

Blake shook her head. "Not in the slightest. I'd much rather read a book than go out to a party."

"Author vibes, I'm telling you," Qrow said to his niece with a smirk. "Glad to hear, Blake. I know far too many students who let partying take control. There _is_ a balance. Unfortunately, most 18 year olds can't really figure out how to achieve that balance."

The walkie-talkie on Qrow's vest blurted out. "72 on Academy Avenue. 72 on Academy Avenue. Any available units report."

Qrow rose his hand and tapped the button on the device. "Branwen reporting in. Heading over."

"10-4."

Qrow stood up from the table. "Well, unfortunately girls, duty calls. I'll catch up with you two another time. It was a pleasure to meet you, Blake."

The black-haired girl gave a small smile. "It was very nice to meet you too."

"Stay out of trouble, kiddo," Qrow said to his niece with a smirk, ruffling her hair very briefly before dashing away.

"Don't worry about me, Uncle Qrow! Stay safe!" Yang called out after her uncle. Once he had disappeared, she tried to fix her now messed-up hair.

"He was nice," Blake shrugged, sipping her tea some more.

"He can be a bit much at times, but he means well." Yang gave a gentle shrug as she stirred her coffee a bit more.

"I won't lie, I can't say I've ever enjoyed talking to a cop before." Blake placed down her tea. _Did I just say that?_

"Really?" Yang rose an eyebrow.

Blake felt a bunch of regret in her heart. Why'd she say that? Yang didn't need to know about her cop problem. Yang was studying to _become_ a cop. Yet, she'd already said it. She had to go through with it.

 _Break out of your shell. You can do it. You'll be fine._

Blake nodded, taking another sip from her tea. "I can't really say I've ever had a positive experience with one."

Yang furrowed her brow. "I've heard stories about the cops in the capital, but the cops in my hometown are pretty chill. Guess it's more of a small-town thing."

"Yeah, that's where I grew up. The capital. Cops there weren't the nicest in the world." Blake's heart was beating so fast. _You don't have to tell her everything, but it doesn't hurt to open up a little._

"You grew up in the capital?" Yang tilted her head.

Blake nodded slowly. "My whole life, until Beacon. Things are really different here. A lot quieter. But it's nice to get away from the city for a couple years."

Yang looked at her roommate for a long moment. She was anxious, spinning her teabag in her cup, her leg bouncing. In the brief time Yang had known the raven-haired girl, she'd never been one to ever talk about her past. Yang had brought up her family and her hometown a few times, but Blake never spoke of any of those things.

Yang wanted to be her _friend_ , not make her anxious. Yang now had a small mental list of her roommate's off-limits topics: the past, family, and cops. Considering two of the three were extremely important in Yang's life, it was kind of hard to come up with other stuff to talk about. Yet, the blonde still wanted to give the black-haired girl a chance.

Yang sipped her coffee, thinking about this situation. She'd never really been a person to hint around things. Most people would describe her as blunt, in the nicest sense.

"Blake?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm gonna ask you a question. It's pretty personal, and you don't have to answer it if you want, but I'm just curious."

Blake rose an eyebrow at her roommate. "Curiosity killed the cat, Yang."

"But satisfaction brought it back," Yang shrugged, taking another sip of her coffee.

Blake thought for a moment, before coming to a decision. "Shoot."

"Have you... ever had a friend?"

Blake put her tea down on the table and looked at Yang. She felt like she should be a little bit offended. Yet, Yang had sounded… Concerned.

"I didn't mean it in a bad way. I don't know. Forget I asked," Yang flushed bright red, staring down at her coffee.

"I've had one friend, but that ended a while ago. He ended up not being all that great of a friend in the end. Other than that, no, I haven't." Blake put down her tea.

Yang glanced up at the black-haired girl. "I know you aren't the most open person, Blake, but I'd like to try and be your friend."

Silence.

Blake looked at Yang, very carefully. The blonde girl had not dropped her gaze, but instead, amber eyes met lilac. "You… want to be my friend?"

Yang nodded. "We aren't extremely alike, I know that. But I do think we'd make good friends if we gave it a shot."

"Don't friends normally just like… happen? Instead of someone asking permission to be someone's friend?" Blake rose an eyebrow at her roommate.

"I tried that. You shut me out."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

The two roommates sat, staring at each other in continued silence.

"You really don't party anymore?" Blake asked.

Yang shook her head. "I'm studying criminal justice. If I got caught at a party, I'd get kicked out of the CJ program. I got it all out of me this summer. The cops back home would never arrest the sheriff's daughter. Here, it's different. I'm not Yang Xiao Long, emphasis on the Xiao Long. I'm Yang Xiao Long, emphasis on nothing. I'm an adult, and I have to be responsible for myself."

"I won't lie. That's probably the last thing I'd ever expected to hear you say."

Yang smirked at her roommate. "Oh, come on. I'm not _that_ bad."

Blake sighed. "I was a little quick to judge, I will admit. But… I think we got started on the wrong foot. I think I'd like to be friends, Yang. I think I'd really like that."

Blake smiled at her roommate. Not a forced smile, but a genuine smile.

 _Someone legitimately wants to be my friend. She wants to be my friend._


	5. Chapter 5

"Alright, Yang. What's the consensus model?"

Blake was sitting on the floor of her dorm room with her roommate, holding a stack of flashcards Yang had created. The blonde girl was laying on her stomach, thinking for a moment at the question. She took a few moments, searching the corners of her brain for the definition. Lilac eyes suddenly lit up as she looked at her roommate.

"That's the one where the different parts of the system work together by design, right?"

Blake smiled. "Correct."

Yang had her first criminal justice exam tomorrow. Three weeks into the school year had meant the first round of exams in many classes. Blake's classes were primarily paper-based as opposed to Yang's more exam-based classes, so the raven-haired girl had offered to help the blonde study for her first exam.

Yang wouldn't lie. She was a little nervous. She knew most of the material: a lot of it was a mixture of common sense and information she'd known from growing up in a family full of cops. She hadn't overdone herself with studying, but she was grateful that Blake had agreed to go through the flashcards with her one last time for the night.

Blake placed the card at the back of the pile and glanced over the next one. "What's crime typology?"

Yang's eyes immediately lit up. "It's a classification scheme used in the study and description of criminal behavior!"

"Correct."

Blake flipped the card to the back of the stack. "Oh, that's back to the beginning."

Yang sat up quickly. "Really? We're done?"

Blake nodded. "You did nearly perfect. I think you'll be pretty much set on your exam tomorrow."

The blonde pumped her fists in the air. "Hell yeah!"

The raven-haired girl smirked, shaking her head slightly at the overly-excited blonde. The past week had been straight-up _unbelievable_ to Blake. She'd been pushing herself out of her shell, even if it was just a little bit. Yang had been patient, _incredibly_ patient. Usually Blake would go for one meal out with Yang, and at least try to spend an hour away from her own work and writings to spend time hanging out with her roommate. It had only been a week, and usually they didn't do a whole lot of talking, but Blake felt… _better._ Less anxious about school, less anxious about socializing, less anxious in general. She'd always been a very anxious person; it was due to a combination of her nature and her upbringing. Yet, when she was hanging out with Yang, the world seemed a little bit easier, even if just for a little while.

Today had hands-down been the most the two had really talked, even though it was just helping Yang study instead of actually talking about anything really related to them. They'd made it a habit of watching long videos on the internet of video game gameplay, so usually their discussion was limited to the contexts of the video and laughing at the jokes made.

Yang had never expected in a million years that _Blake_ of all people would be into the same gameplay videos that she was. The blonde had been following this particular group for the better part of four years. Blake had seen one of Yang's posters was from the group, and the two had discovered that somehow, the two had something in common. Blake, apparently, found the videos a nice escape from reality. She also sometimes watched the videos on half of her laptop while writing on the other half, giving her something to listen to while she wrote.

Today, of course, had been different. Yang asked Blake to help her study for her exam tomorrow, and the author had agreed to help. The huge stack of index cards had taken them about an hour, the amount of time which usually left Blake to want to be by herself again. Yet, she was sitting here, looking at the blonde, and didn't want to tuck herself away back into her writing _just_ yet.

"Oh crap, I was supposed to call Ruby tonight!" Yang leaped up off the ground, her phone in her hand.

It looked like it was time for Blake to bury herself in her writing.

Blake got up off the ground as Yang hurried to her desk chair and started to boot up her laptop. Blake pulled her own laptop from her backpack, bringing it up onto the bed with her as she set herself up to work on her latest piece.

Yang's laptop lit up, rapidly tapping her password into the log-in screen. Waiting a few moments for her skype to load up, she quickly started the video call with her sister.

Blake, of course, had witnessed a couple of these calls in the past three weeks. Yang made an effort to call her younger sister at least once a week. Blake had always been on her bed during these calls, out of the range of the camera. Yet, that was when she was still ignoring Yang. She had a slight fear that Yang would try to introduce the black-haired girl to her younger sister. Blake had heard Ruby talk before, and the younger girl was overly excited and barely seemed to have a filter. Yang, at the least, understood her differences with Blake and knew when the author didn't want to talk. Blake _seriously_ doubted that Ruby had the same understanding that her older sister had.

The call on Yang's screen lit up. A younger girl, around 16, with short brown hair and crimson tips was smiling on the screen.

Yang's smile flashed extremely wide as she gave a small wave to her webcam. "Hey Rubes! Sorry it took me so long, Blake was helping me cram some last-minute studying for my criminal justice exam tomorrow."

"No problem, Yang! Is Blake still there right now?" the younger girl asked.

Blake's eyes glanced up at the sound of her name.

"Yeah, she's over on her bed working on her writing. You can say hi, though." The blonde moved her laptop slightly so that Blake was in the background of the webcam for a moment.

"Hi." Blake gave a small wave to the laptop.

Ruby was _so_ excited, bouncing up and down as she waved furiously at her own webcam. "Hiya Blake! It's awesome to finally meet you! Good luck with your writing!"

"Thanks," Blake said with a small smile. She was finding herself, yet again, _infinitely_ glad that Yang was more refined than her younger sister.

Yang flashed a smile over her shoulder to Blake. _She said hi to Ruby!_ Anytime she found herself realizing that Blake really _was_ putting in effort to try and be friends with her roommate, Yang was overjoyed. The blonde felt like she was really making a difference in the life of the introverted author.

Yang readjusted her laptop so that Blake was no longer in the background. "So, Rubes, how's your week been?"

Ruby shrugged, her normally cheery demeanor becoming a bit drearier. "It's been okay, I guess. Mercury and Emerald have been getting rude again, but everyone knows they were too stupid to graduate on time last year, so people take what they say a lot less seriously than they did last year. Still, they've been making comments. It's a little bit hard to ignore, but I've been making do."

Yang's eyes lowered. "They lay so much as a single finger on you and I _will_ come back and ensure that neither of them will ever be able to walk again, 18 or not 18."

"Yang, I can handle myself. Besides, they don't have the guts to do anything physical without Cinder around. Penny hangs out with me all the time, so I'm not ever really alone or anything."

"Good. I'm serious, though. I _will_ break their legs." Yang punched her right fist into her left palm.

Ruby giggled a little at her older sister. "Other than that, the week's been good. Penny slept over last weekend, and classes have been going pretty well. I don't know, it's just high school. You know how that all goes. How have you been doing? Any crazy college adventures this week?"

Yang shook her head. "Nothing exciting. Classes, studying, hanging out at the Queer Center, the usual. Oh my god, I almost forgot. You will _never_ guess who I saw at the QC the other day!"

"Who?"

" _Cinder_."

Ruby's jaw seemed to hit the floor. "No way."

Yang smirked at her sister. "Yes way. I was hanging out with a bunch of friends doing some homework and she came in for a tour. It was _so_ awkward. I couldn't believe she came around, especially after all the shit she used to talk about gay people in high school. I bet you any amount of money she totally just repressed her sexuality for years."

"Oh man, that's gotta be it. Keep me updated on that if you ever see her around there again." Ruby snickered.

Yang shook her head. "God, I hope not. She made my life a living hell in high school, I never want to see her again. BU is pretty big, so it's easy to avoid someone… as long as they don't start going to the same places you do."

"Well, I'll come break _her_ legs then." Ruby crossed her arms.

Yang snickered. "Puh-lease, Ruby. You couldn't hurt a fly."

"I'm tough, Yang! I'm gonna be a cop like Uncle Qrow and Dad and Mom and you!"

"I'm not a cop yet, squirt. And neither are you. You're going to have to start going to the gym soon, you know. You've gotta get some muscle on your body. These puppies don't pop up overnight. You better get started now." Yang flexed her biceps, causing Ruby to roll her eyes.

"Dad _has_ been taking me to the gym. I'll be able to beat you in an arm wrestling match in no time!"

Yang smirked at her sister. "We'll try when I come home for Thanksgiving, but I doubt you'll be able to beat me _that_ fast."

"We'll see!"

"Yeah, squirt, we _will_ see. You _will_ see me kick your ass."

Ruby huffed, her arms still crossed, as she stuck out her tongue at her older sister.

Yang's eyes glanced to the clock in the corner of her computer screen. "Hey, Rubes, I'm really sorry to cut this one short, but I really should get to sleep soon. That exam tomorrow is pretty early and I shouldn't stay up too late tonight, and I still have some things I have to do before I go to bed."

"Okay, Yang, no problem. Good luck on your exam tomorrow! I know you can do it!" Ruby threw a fist into the air, a giant smile on the younger girl's face.

"Thanks, Ruby. Love you!"

"Love you too!"

The call disconnected.

Blake had never really tried to eavesdrop, but she couldn't figure out where she'd placed her earbuds, and her hearing tended to be a bit better than most people. She'd heard all of the conversation, and had quite a few questions. She most certainly wasn't going to ask, considering how she felt the answers were really _none_ of her business, but… still. Who was Cinder? Why was Ruby getting bullied? Had Yang been bullied?

One thing that _particularly_ stuck out to Blake was Ruby's mention of the word "Mom". Yang had only ever spoken about her dad, uncle, and sister. Blake herself never mentioned her family, but with Yang, family was one of the _only_ things she talked about. The normally highly-observant author hadn't noticed that Yang had never mentioned her mother until the word slipped from Ruby's mouth.

Yang stood up from her desk, laptop in hand, turning to Blake, deep in thought.

"There's a brand-new VR video up; I just checked. It's only like a half an hour if you want to watch before it gets too late. It's one that's been hyped up for a couple weeks," the blonde shrugged.

Blake snapped out of her trance, looking at her roommate. "Sure," she said as she snapped her laptop shut. She hadn't gotten a single word of writing done, but she honestly didn't mind. She'd much rather spend the rest of her night watching a video with Yang. Between the video and the goofy blonde, Blake knew she wouldn't have too much anxiety tonight.

Yang climbed up the small ottoman next to Blake's bed, putting the laptop on one of the pillows that Blake offered. The two roommates sat with their backs up against the wall as the video started. Hearing the familiar voices of her favorite internet personalities almost immediately relaxed Blake's shoulders a bit. When the shenanigans of the video began to start, it was impossible to ignore Yang's explosive laugh.

Blake might have been able to very clearly help Yang earlier with her studying, but she doubted Yang knew how much she'd been helping Blake. It'd only been a week, and the two still didn't know an overwhelming amount about each other, but just having someone to enjoy a good video and a good laugh with made the entire experience even better.

Blake caught herself looking at Yang in the reflection of the laptop screen. She wasn't entirely sure why she found herself staring at the blonde, but she certainly was staring. The author _also_ wasn't entirely sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing, but it most certainly was _something_.

* * *

 **AN:**

The setup for the plot of this story is almost complete! The majority of the story is just fluff, but there is a loose plot thrown in there. Lots of familiar faces, of course, and a couple good ol' Roosterteeth references.

At the time of posting this chapter this fic has over 1,500 views, 60 follows, and 20 favorites! Considering how new the whole fanfic scene is to me, it feels _super_ awesome to know so many people like my writing. Thanks once again for all of your support!


	6. Chapter 6

Saturdays were always a pretty good day for Yang.

The blonde would rise early on the weekends. The Criminal Justice Club held workout classes every Saturday and Sunday morning, specifically for CJ majors. Yang, who'd always been an athletic person, looked forward to the workouts. On this particular mid-October weekend, the workout had been brutal; no one _really_ ever enjoyed a spinning class. Yet, her natural optimism tried to make the best of it.

After a long shower at the gym, Yang slung her gym bag over her shoulder and started the trek back to her dorm. If she was lucky, Blake hadn't left for breakfast yet, and the two could go grab some breakfast together. It was still fairly early, barely 9 in the morning. Even Blake usually allowed herself a few hours of sleeping in on the weekends, to Yang's surprise. In the weeks since they'd become friends, Blake had waited for Yang to get back from the gym before going to get breakfast, but a nagging bit in the back of Yang's head was constantly worried that the raven-haired girl was going to close herself out again.

Yang couldn't really stop herself from caring about Blake. She'd gotten her out socializing with others a couple times, but it was pretty clear that Blake still had a long way to go. The blonde had a very hard time putting words to the way she felt about her roommate. She knew that Blake had some issues from the past, whatever they may be, and she knew Blake didn't have friends throughout her life. Yang knew she didn't exactly pity the girl, but she still felt _bad_ seeing how alone Blake was. Making the black-haired girl laugh was one of Yang's favorite things. The fact that she could bring happiness to Blake's life and make her laugh and smile made Yang feel amazing. Hell, even seeing Blake laugh in reaction to a video made Yang happy, because she knew Blake was happy.

Yang's thoughts were interrupted as the blonde approached the BU Crater, the halfway point between the gym and her dorm. There were a ton of cops around, at least half the campus police force, as well as yellow police tape blocking the area off. Yang spotted Qrow among the officers, luckily near the edge. The blonde ran over to her uncle, trying to get his attention.

"Uncle Qrow!"

The cop turned around. "Hey kiddo."

"What's going on?" Yang asked, looking around.

Qrow rose an eyebrow. "Did you not see the crime alert?"

The crime alerts, of course, were messages that the campus police used to get out information. They sent out e-mails, texts, and notifications to the school's app whenever something big was going on. Usually, the messages consisted of descriptions of the crime, the time and place, and a description or picture of the suspect. They happened a couple times a year, and some of the more "out there" crime alerts became a bit of local university memes online. Yang could recall a couple that she'd heard of from her uncle while she was still at high school, including one of a man who was stealing stuff from people's cars and called himself "Bigggggg Mike", with exactly six g's, no more, no less.

"No, I didn't. I was at the gym for a spinning class, wasn't really looking at my phone," Yang said as she tried to crane her head around and see.

Qrow put his hand on Yang's shoulder. "You can't stay here, Yang. I know you're my niece and all, but you really can't be hanging around here right now. Something serious has happened. Go back to your dorm and read the crime alert. Call me if you need me or if you hear anything."

Yang's brow furrowed. Uncle Qrow _never_ acted this way, even when he was on a case. Usually those were more minor though. This had to be serious. "Alright, Uncle Qrow. Love you, stay safe."

"Love you too, kiddo."

Yang was walking down the street again, fumbling with her phone with one hand while the other kept her gym bag on her shoulder. After struggling to enter her pin for a few moments, she finally managed to get her e-mail open.

 _BEACON UNIVERSITY CRIME ALERT_

 _A suspect was found at the crater at the former site of BU Commons. The suspect is accused of trespassing and assaulting an officer._

 _The suspect, an unidentified white male, was taken into custody at 5:00 a.m. on Saturday, October 17_ _th_ _. The suspect refuses to cooperate with authorities, and no identification could be found on the suspect nor around the site. The suspect has been confirmed to not be a student at Beacon University. Attached is a picture of the suspect. Initial investigation shows that the suspect has been living inside the crater for at least 3 weeks._

 _If anyone knows anything regarding the suspect's identity, please contact the Beacon University Police Department._

At the bottom of the page was a few numbers, for the police department and an anonymous tip line. Yang scrolled down further on her phone, causing her e-mail app to pull up the picture of the suspect. The man was pale, his facial expression blank but marked by a thin scar along his left cheek. His hair was bright red, an even richer shade of crimson than the tips Ruby had in her hair. The man's beady eyes had bright red irises, filled with fury. The man looked to be a couple years older than Yang, probably in his early 20s. Something about him struck Yang as extremely creepy. After a few moments, she decided his eyes was what made him a bit uneasy to look at. Either that, or the fact that he wasn't a student, and he'd been hiding and living in the BU Crater for at least 3 weeks.

He didn't look like some random homeless guy who had needed a place to stay. He appeared to have a purpose, a reason for hiding on a college campus. If it was big enough for a Crime Alert, and to have half the campus police to be wandering around the scene of the crime, then this was obviously more than just a random "trespasser". Assaulting a police officer was pretty big, but obviously, no one suspected that this guy was lacking a motive for coming here. Yang sure as hell thought he had to have some sort of motive.

The blonde shrugged it off, getting rather close to her dorm now. The suspect didn't pertain to her, and she was sure her uncle would keep her updated as more information came out. He always did.

* * *

Yang fumbled with her keys, struggling to jam them into the door. She'd always struggled a little bit with the key, but it only took Yang a couple extra seconds to get the door open. It got frustrating sometimes, such as today, when it took Yang three or four tries to properly unlock the door.

"Goddamn key," the blonde muttered as she swung open the door, tossing her gym bag down at the foot of her bed. She looked up to Blake, about to ask the black-haired girl if she'd gotten breakfast yet, but the blonde stopped dead in her tracks once she saw her roommate.

Blake was sitting on top of her bed, her legs curled up to her chest as she hugged them close to her chest with her arms. Her face was buried into her legs, and she was shaking badly. She made a few muffled noises that Yang immediately recognized as sobs.

"Blake? Are you okay?" Yang was immediately at the edge of the black-haired girl's bed, placing one of her hands gently on Blake's knee.

Blake flinched at Yang's touch as she looked up at the blonde. Her eyes were red and puffy, her cheeks stained with tears. She struggled to say something, but simply let out another sob as she buried her head back into her legs, shaking and crying even more.

Yang quickly climbed onto the bed next to her, wrapping one arm around the sobbing girl. She didn't know what was going on, but she knew Blake needed someone right now. "Breathe, Blake. You're okay, I'm right here." Yang began gently rubbing the girl's arm with her hand.

Yang had half expected Blake to tense up, but it appeared that the usually closed girl had given up. She released her grip on her knees, grabbing onto Yang instead as she began to sob into the blonde girl's shoulder. Yang wrapped her other arm around Blake, hugging the girl closely in an embrace. Yang rubbed the girl's back slightly, a trick for calming someone down that she had picked up when she used to care for Ruby when the pair were younger. The blonde let Blake cry it all out, occasionally reminding her to take a breath until the shaking and sobbing slowly stopped.

Once Blake's breathing had returned to a state of semi-normalcy, the black-haired girl released her grip on the blonde, who in turn released Blake from her embrace. With a shaky hand, Blake grabbed her phone, which had been left sitting next to her on the bed. She slowly unlocked the phone, showing Yang the screen. The screen showed the picture of the suspect found at BU Crater earlier that day. Blake spoke with a hoarse, shaky voice, holding back more sobs.

"He's coming for me."

Lilac eyes filled with shock. "You know who that is?"

Blake nodded slowly, locking her phone and throwing it at her pillow, unable to look at the picture any longer. The girl's shoulders were shaking slightly once again.

Yang wrapped her arm around Blake's shoulder again. "He's in custody. He can't come for you. It's okay. You're safe here."

Blake's shaking didn't stop. "I thought I finally got rid of him. I thought he was finally out of my life. I even got a goddamn restraining order!" A black-haired head fell into pale hands as the sobbing resumed.

Yang squeezed Blake's shoulder gently. "Hey, hey. Breathe. You're okay, he's not coming near you. Deep breaths."

The black-haired girl did as she was told, taking deep breaths, slowly steadying her shaking body.

Yang rubbed the girl's arm gently, speaking softly. "Listen, I'm going to call my Uncle Qrow. He'll come here and you can tell him whatever you know about the guy. They're looking for information, and the more they have the longer he'll be kept away. If you've got a restraining order, there's a pretty big chance he's in some sort of violation, and that's a pretty big deal. Is it okay if Qrow comes here to talk to you?"

The black-haired girl pulled her face from her hands . "Can you make sure its Qrow who comes? Not some other cop?"

Yang nodded. "Of course."

Blake nodded slowly. "I'll talk to him."

Yang released her arm from Blake and began to climb off the bed. The black-haired girl looked hurt for a moment when Yang left her alone on the bed.

"I'll be right back. I'm just going to make the call in the stairway," Yang assured her.

Blake nodded in understanding, watching as Yang left the room.

Yang pulled out her phone and immediately placed the call as she walked towards the back staircase in the dorm. Since it was hardly ever used, it was a good place to make private phone calls.

The line picked up after seven anxious rings. "Yang?"

"Uncle Qrow, Blake knows who the suspect is."

There was a pause. "Are you serious?"

"Absolutely. When I got back, she was sobbing. I calmed her down, she showed me the picture of the guy from the crime alert. She said he came here to come after her. She even mentioned a restraining order. I know she's not too keen on cops in general, but I got her to agree to talk to you."

"My partner will have to come along too, but I'll make sure I do most of the talking. We can talk to her in your dorm room. We'll be there in 10."

The line disconnected. Yang slid her phone back into her pocket, walking back towards her room. She hoped that Blake had been able to calm herself down a little bit more. Yang hated seeing people cry. The blonde was someone who always strived to make others happy and radiate positive vibes. It was kind of hard to do that when people were sobbing, especially anyone who she cared about. If she had been unsure if she really cared about Blake or not, the events of this morning had certainly cemented Yang's desire to protect the black-haired girl.

Yang opened the door to the dorm room. Blake had barely moved, except that she was clutching her pillow against her chest, eyes closed, as she took deep breaths.

"He said he'll be here in about ten minutes. His partner has to come with him, but I've met her before too. She's very nice, and Qrow said he'd be doing most of the talking."

Blake's eyes opened at the sound of Yang's voice. "Okay," she said hoarsely.

Yang walked over to the shared minifridge and grabbed a bottle of water. She handed it to Blake, who immediately took the offer. The black-haired girl knew the consequences of not properly hydrating after a long cry very well, having once been hospitalized for dehydration after one particularly bad night.

"Do you want me to come back up there with you?" Yang asked after Blake finished a long sip of water.

Blake nodded. "Yes please."

Yang climbed back up onto the bed, sitting next to the black-haired girl. The blonde put an arm around Blake's shoulders, who in turn laid her head on Yang's shoulder. The two sat in silence for a minute, Blake taking a few more sips of water.

Blake's voice broke the silence. "Yang… Thank you."

Yang gently squeezed Blake's shoulders. "Of course, Blake. What kind of friend would I be if I didn't try to help? I wasn't just going to leave you there sobbing on your own."

"I wish I had someone like you for a friend growing up." Blake let out a small sigh.

"Well, you've got me now. And I wish you luck getting rid of me, because a friend of Yang Xiao Long is a friend for life!" the blonde cracked a large, goofy smile.

Blake let a tiny smile form over her face. Yang legitimately cared, something Blake had not felt in many, many years.


	7. Chapter 7

Qrow arrived at the dorm in exactly ten minutes, as he had promised. The brisk knock on the dorm room door followed by Qrow declaring "Campus police" outside the door signified their arrival.

Yang climbed off the bed to answer the door. Out of habit, she peered through the peephole first, just to be sure. It was a habit she was grateful that her father had instilled in her from a very young age. Cops were always a bit more paranoid than others when it came to the possibility of themselves falling victim to a crime. Yang's double check through the peephole confirmed the visitors as her Uncle Qrow and his partner.

Yang opened the door, letting the two cops in. She exchanged greetings with them as she led them into the small dorm room.

Blake had been staring at her locked phone, which was still sitting on the bed near where her pillow normally rested. She looked up at the entrance of the two cops. One, of course, she recognized as Qrow Branwen. The other was a tall, middle aged woman with light blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail. Her eyes were a piercing lime green, and she wore a small pair of glasses on her face. Her uniform was identical to Qrow's.

Yang hopped back up onto the bed next to Blake as the two cops approached them. Qrow grabbed one of the desk chairs and sat towards the edge of the bed, his partner doing the same.

"Blake, I'd like you to meet my partner, Officer Glynda Goodwitch. I can't do official police work without her, but she'll just be recording our conversation today. Is that okay?" Qrow asked.

Blake nodded. "That's fine."

Qrow looked at his niece. "Yang, could you go down to the lounge? I can get you when we're done-."

"No!" Blake exclaimed, causing all three to look at her. Her face flushed deep red. "Could she stay here for moral support?"

Qrow looked at his niece again. "As long as she's silent for the recording, that's fine."

"I can do that," Yang said with a nod, feeling Blake lean into her warmth a little bit more.

Qrow nodded, looking back at Blake. "Okay, Officer Goodwitch is going to start the recording in a second. I've got to ask a couple questions for the record about you, like your name and your occupation, which is a student here. Then I'll ask you questions about the suspect and your connection to him."

"Okay," Blake said.

Qrow pointed at Glynda, who pressed the button on a digital recorder she had been holding. Once the light turned red on the device, Qrow asked Blake the first question.

"Could you please state your full name for the record?"

"Blake Belladonna."

"What is your occupation, Miss Belladonna?"

"I'm a student at Beacon University."

"Do you know the name of the suspect found earlier this morning at the former BU Commons site?"

Blake sighed, drawing a shaky breath. "Yes. Adam Taurus."

"What is your connection to Mr. Taurus?"

"We grew up together. We were both foster kids in the capital's system, two years apart. Adam was the other foster kid at my first home, when I was six years old. He was like a brother to me when we were younger, or at least that's what I thought our relationship would stay like."

"When did your relationship with Mr. Taurus change?"

"Things changed around the time he hit puberty, when he was 14 and I was 12. He no longer wanted to act like I was his sister. He wanted to act like I was his girlfriend. I didn't really have much of a choice in the situation. He was my only friend, the only person looking out for me as I grew up. Homes get switched around a lot, but he always managed to sweet talk his way into getting us into the same home. We were in a relationship for about five years."

"What ended your relationship with Mr. Taurus?"

"I was never really into the relationship. I just sort of went with it because my life was focused on surviving the foster care system. I'm not a strong girl, I never have been. He protected me, on more than one occasion. If that's what he wanted, I went with it, because I knew there was no way I could survive without him, especially at 12. Over the years, he got more and more possessive. When he left the system at 18, I was still 16, and he constantly begged me to run away and come live with him. I refused. I had the possibility to make it to college if I stayed in school and stayed in the system. If I ran away and went on the lamb, I'd be stuck with him forever. During those last two years, things went from possessive to abusive. Physically and emotionally. Once I got into BU, I knew what I had to do. I stayed with my foster family until I moved out for school. I left a week earlier than I told him I was going to. I changed my number, filed for a restraining order, and left the capital for good. I moved in here, and moved on from that part of my life."

"Do you know what the specific terms of the restraining order were?"

"He wasn't allowed to come within fifty feet of me, my old workplace in the capital, my dorm building, or my old foster home."

"How often do you usually walk past the BU Commons site?"

"Every day, several times a day. It's the quickest way to get to the center of campus. I also always walk on the side with the crater… My god, he's been watching me every day for three weeks." Blake put her head in her hands, shaking slightly.

Yang put a hand on her roommate's back, reminding the black-haired girl of her presence.

"We're almost done, just a few more questions. Your restraining order was filed in the capital courts, correct?"

Blake looked back up. "Yes, they were filed in the capital."

"Were you over 18 when you filed the restraining order?"

"Yes, I was over 18."

"Was Mr. Taurus aware that you were attending Beacon University prior to the filing of the restraining order?"

"No. He never would have let me go if he'd known. I kept my application and acceptance extremely private. I told him I was working all summer to save up for an apartment in the fall when I'd be leaving my foster home. My foster family and I had an agreement, I'd stay until the end of the August after I graduated high school, regardless of if I went to college or not. He didn't know until the papers were served to him, and I was already set up in my dorm room, long gone."

"Thank you, Miss Belladonna. That's all the questions I have for you." Qrow looked at Glynda, who switched off the recorder.

Qrow turned back to Blake. "Blake, I'm going to do everything I can to make sure that he's held accountable for his actions and his violations of the order. And I can guarantee you he's going to get a blanket ban from all of campus. He's not going to be let out of custody until he is far away from this campus, that much I can assure you."

Blake nodded, holding back tears again. "Thank you, so much."

Qrow stood up, gesturing to Yang. "Can I talk to you in the hall for a moment?"

Yang nodded, climbing off of the bed. Blake grabbed her pillow again, clutching it in Yang's absence, watching as the blonde followed the two cops out the door.

Once the door was shut behind them, Qrow spoke in a low voice. "Make sure to take care of her for the rest of the day."

Yang shot a glare of daggers at her uncle. "I've dealt with enough Ruby breakdowns to know how to help someone after something like this."

"Just making sure. And offer to-."

Yang cut him off. "Walk her to classes or wherever she needs to go until she feels comfortable again. I'm one step ahead of you, Uncle Qrow."

Qrow ruffled her hair slightly. "Glad to see your dad and I raised you right. I'll let you know if we need Blake for anything else. Love you, kiddo."

"Love you too, Uncle Qrow. Stay safe." Yang nodded before heading back into her dorm room.

Blake was still hugging her pillow on her bed, staring blankly into the distance. Her heart felt like it was tightening. He was _here_. Yang _knew_. Yang knew about him, Yang knew about her, Yang just _knew_. Blake was honestly unsure how she felt about it. She obviously trusted Yang, considering she let her stay in the room when she told the cops what happened. Yet, she still felt uneasy, like she shouldn't be trusting anyone, let alone Yang. She'd only known the blonde for not even two months, yet she'd spilled her life's story to her. Granted, a ton of details were missing, but now she _knew_. Blake legitimately couldn't shake her extreme discomfort about the situation. Every one of her instincts told her to run far away and not look back.

Yet, when Yang climbed back onto the bed and wrapped her arm around Blake again, the tension in Blake's chest eased. Her shoulders relaxed, as well as her grip on the pillow. Yang's body heat was like a radiator, even in the cool fall days. The blonde said nothing at first, simply wrapping her arm around Blake's shoulder and allowing the black-haired girl to relax a bit more. Eventually, Blake laid her head on Yang's shoulder again and sighed.

Yang was slightly shocked to hear the voice of the black-haired girl follow the sigh. "So."

"So," Yang repeated.

"I've never told anyone any of that before."

Yang glanced at Blake's head, still resting on her shoulder. "I'm not going to go and tell anyone, if that's what you're worried about."

Blake sighed again. "No, that's not it… It's just kind of a big deal to me, I guess."

"Well, I'm glad you trust me enough to tell me about it."

Blake looked up at Yang. "You're glad?"

Yang nodded. "Keeping that stuff inside isn't good, not for anyone. I've seen it firsthand quite a few times. I had no clue you were harboring all of that inside of you. I'm glad you got it out before things got significantly worse."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Blake leaned her head against the wall, staring off into the distance in the room.

"Blake, I know you aren't the most open person in the world. I usually don't go telling everyone my life story either, but I know it's a much bigger deal for you. Still, if stuff about the past is bothering you, I'm here to listen. I won't even say anything if you don't want me too. Sometimes all you need is a willing ear."

Blake turned her head back towards Yang. A small smile formed over her face. "Thank you, Yang. That really means a lot. I'll probably take you up on that in the future… Just not today."

Yang smiled back. "That's fine! I have one condition for today though."

"What's that?" Blake raised an eyebrow.

"You," Yang poked Blake in the shoulder with her free hand, "are not allowed to be alone for the rest of today."

"Oh?"

Yang smirked. "I know how all this works _very_ well, Blake. Alone time means crying time, and there's no more sadness today. You can pick what we do, but I'm your personal happiness booster for the day. Or the weekend. Or however long. Point being, _we_ are going to keep _you_ distracted and make you a _happy_ Blake today." With each emphasized word, Yang poked Blake in the shoulder again.

The black-haired girl shook her head at the girl. "You really aren't going to leave me alone, are you?"

"No _p_ e." Yang popped the _p_.

Blake let off a sarcastic eye roll and a smirk. "Fine, Blondie. But we aren't leaving the dorm today, at the very least."

"Ooh, I get a nickname!" Yang chucked. "Oh, and one more thing."

"What's that?"

"It's more of an offer than anything, but if you want someone to walk you to classes and stuff, I'm willing to get up a little earlier and be your girl for the job." Yang flashed a smile and pointed at herself using the thumb on her free hand, the other still wrapped around Blake's shoulders.

Blake chuckled lightly at Yang's goofy demeanor. "I might take you up on that one." After a moment of silence, she spoke again. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Go for it," Yang said with a nod.

"Why do you care so much?"

Yang's eyebrows scrunched together. "Come again?"

Blake drooped her shoulders and looked away from the blonde. "I'm not used to people just… doing these nice things for me. I'm just trying to understand why you're doing this."

Yang squeezed the black-haired girl's shoulder, causing her to look up at the blonde. "You're my friend, Blake. That's why I care. I take care of my friends. You're no different."

Blake thought for a moment, opening her mouth to speak again. Instead of her voice, a loud and long growl came from her stomach. The black-haired girl smiled sheepishly as redness filled her cheeks.

Yang chuckled lightly. "Someone's hungry."

Blake nodded sheepishly, glancing at the clock. "Yeah, I guess so. Never got any breakfast. Or lunch, at this point."

"How about I whip us up some mac and cheese for lunch, and then we can order some pizza later for dinner?" Yang asked.

Another loud growl came from Blake's stomach, causing Blake to blush again.

Yang shook her head with a chuckle, releasing Blake from the one-armed hug and getting off the bed. "I'll take that as a yes."

Blake smiled softly at the blonde, a warm comforting feeling filling her chest as she saw the returning smile on Yang's face. "Yeah, that's a yes."

* * *

 **AN:**

Brief little note here, I've decided to change the genres on this fic from Romance/Humor to Romance/Hurt/Comfort. Originally, this fic was going to be mostly fluff, and don't get me wrong, there will still be _lots_ of fluff. However, I've decided that I wanted there to be somewhat of an overall plot, and the tone of the plot I've decided on is a bit... darker. I'm not sure if it's a permanent decision, but hey, I'm just here to write a nice bumbleby story for y'all. That is all, I hope you enjoyed and thank you for all of your continuing support! It really means a lot!


	8. Chapter 8

It had been nearly two weeks since Adam had been found on campus. The two had been spending a _lot_ of time together. Yang had kept her promise to Blake, and walked the black-haired girl to all of her classes, even the classes that started at 8:00 a.m. Their days had changed to adapt for each other, whether or not they had truly realized it.

The two alarms in the room went off at the same time, despite their tonal differences. Blake was the first of the two to rise, the black-haired girl swatting the alarm off before sitting up and stretching out her back. Yang's alarm was still blaring at full volume, but the blonde simply turned over and pulled her blankets further over her head.

Blake let out a small sigh, inaudible under the blonde's alarm clock. Yang had struggling with waking up at a much earlier time than she was used to, but the blonde girl had kept her promise to Blake. It just took Blake a little bit of effort to get her roommate up in time for the two to walk to the center of campus together.

Blake dropped from her bed, silently. She'd mastered the art of light feet over the years, for better or worse. Since she was so silent, she did not alert Yang in any way. The black-haired girl walked over to the blonde's bed, giving the blanketed girl a small shove.

"Come on, Yang. I know how long you are with your hair. If you don't get up now, we're gonna be late," Blake said, trying to get any response from the pile of blankets that hid the girl.

There was a low grumble of protest as the blankets pulled tighter over the blonde's head.

Blake smirked, knowing a trick that had worked once before. "Yang, if you get up now, I'll buy you some coffee at the U before class."

Blankets flew off of the girl, who sat straight up in the bed. The blonde's hair was wild, extremely messy and tangled. Lilac eyes were still filled with sleepiness, and a tiny line of drool lay from mouth to chin. "I'm up! I'm up!"

Blake shook her head at the girl and smiled. "You're something else, you know that?"

"You know you love me." Yang gave out aa long yawn, stretching out her back as she raised her arms high above her head, forcing her tank top to rise up and reveal her extremely defined abs.

The black-haired girl's heart skipped a beat. She knew Yang worked out a lot, but _damn_. That girl had a _chiseled_ stomach. "Hmm… Maybe," Blake said, trying to cover up from her moment of staring at the blonde's stomach.

"Aww, come on Blakey. Who can't love this smile?" Yang lowered her arms, therefore lowering her tank top. She pointed at herself with her thumbs, spreading her smile wide as it could go.

Blake rolled her eyes, trying hard not to let her returning smile to appear on her face. "Just get up and go to the bathroom so I can get dressed." The black-haired girl turned around towards her dresser, her back to the blonde's bed.

"You know you love it, even if you won't admit it." Yang swung her legs over the edge of the bed, dropping down into her slippers with a heavy _thud_.

"Sure, Yang. Let's go with that, if it makes you feel better." Blake smiled slightly to herself as she pulled out clothes from her dresser, knowing Yang wouldn't be able to see.

Yang reached under her bed to where her two shower caddies rested on a plastic storage bin. The larger of the two contained her various hair and body products for the shower, while the smaller contained her toothbrush and other small non-shower bathroom items. She picked up the smaller of the two, before heading to her desk to pick up her keys. The blonde slipped out of the room, leaving the black-haired girl alone to get dressed for the day.

* * *

Blake was not a very complicated girl when it came to her fashion choices. She'd never had the chance to own very fancy clothing, due to her situation growing up. She had, however, become quite an expert at finding adorable outfits at thrift stores. Waves of hipsters had threatened her stock of clothing in more recent years, which she'd found quite annoying. Thrift stores were the only places she _could_ afford, as opposed to shopping at them to be 'trendy'. On the other hand, it had especially helped her blend in with other English majors at college. Most of them were hipsters anyways, so no one really questioned her rather plain and vintage taste in clothing.

 _Author vibes_. Blake chuckled lightly to herself, remembering her first encounter with Qrow. He wasn't wrong. She dressed like a hipster author, but not for the purpose of being a hipster.

Late October meant cool autumn days. Beacon University was a little bit colder than Blake had been used to, the capitol being a bit further South in the state than the school. The slightly colder weather had forced Blake to pull out her warmer clothes a few weeks earlier than she'd expected. Judging by the forecast her phone provided to her, Blake deemed the day to be perfect flannel weather. Although she wasn't a huge fan of colder weather, flannel weather one of her favorite times of the year. A cozy flannel turned most of her primarily black outfits into something a bit more interesting. It wasn't much, but it felt just right to the black-haired girl.

Blake turned from the dresser to look at herself in the mirror. Her outfit was based entirely in black, with a black t-shirt and black skinny jeans. A pair of worn-down black combat boots rested on her feet, something she'd been sporting for a couple of years. The outfit was accented by her open flannel, which alternated purple and black. Overall, the colors were subdued and dark, something Yang often teased about. Blake never hesitated to comment on Yang's wardrobe, which mostly consisted of bright yellow, among other vibrant colors, and a lot of _extremely_ revealing clothing. _Seriously, her chest is huge. How does she manage to keep all of that in there?_

Blake stopped herself in her thinking. She shouldn't be thinking about her roommate's chest. Shaking her head, she focused back in on her own outfit.

Something was missing, although Blake couldn't quite pin it at first. After a few moments, she parted from the mirror to dig around in her locked desk drawer. She pulled out a long, black bow, something she had not worn since arriving at Beacon U. The accessory had once been such a vital part of her outfit, but now, it had gone untouched in her desk drawer for almost two months.

When Blake was a kid, she'd once seen a cartoon where an orphan wearing a bow got adopted over the other kids because the bow made the girl "prettier". Later in life, Blake found serious flaws in that cartoon, but young Blake knew no better. Hoping the same would happen to her, a much younger Blake swiped the bow from one of her earliest foster homes, just before leaving for a new one. She'd worn it almost every day since she'd stolen it. The bow had been with her, through many years, and through many things.

Blake knew _exactly_ why she hadn't worn the bow since arriving at Beacon. Blake saw the bow as a trinket of her past, something she felt that she'd needed to leave behind entirely in order to move forward with her life. So, she had. Blake hadn't brought herself to throw the bow away, so instead, she'd stuffed it into her desk drawer and locked it away, to be untouched for nearly two months.

The black-haired girl stared down at the bow in her hands. She _had_ felt that way when she first got to the school. Since then, she'd talked to Yang about her past, something she'd never imagined she would do with _anyone_ in a million years. Still, to Blake's amazement, Yang had _understood_. The blonde understood Blake's desire, yet inability, to let go of what happened. Blake had her own suspicions that Yang's life was not as picture perfect as it had been made out to be, but she was in no place to push for information. Yang had always been willing to listen, offering a shoulder to cry on (quite literally) on more than one occasion. Blake had a couple breakdowns since Adam had been found, and Yang had been there to listen and comfort her during each one.

* * *

 _Blake had been having a very bad day. She'd spent most of the day with Yang in-between classes, but the blonde had left for one of her clubs in the evening. Blake had gotten a call from Qrow, who told her that Adam was being moved to custody in the capitol for violating his restraining order. The cop had also mentioned that there was a decent chance that the District Attorney who'd be handling the case would want a formal statement from Blake. Qrow couldn't promise the girl anything about what would or wouldn't happen, but there was a chance that she would have to face Adam in court._

 _When Yang had gotten out of her club meeting, she'd gotten a text from her uncle. He'd just delivered some potentially bad news to Blake, and figured he'd owed Yang a warning. The blonde had rushed back to her dorm, to find a very upset Blake, the breakdown rivaling the one she'd had on the day he was found._

 _Yang, of course, had comforted the girl. She'd held the black-haired girl in her arms, gently calming her down until she was able to explain to the blonde what she'd found out. Blake had a very hard time shaking the whole ordeal._

 _Blake had tried her hardest to explain how she felt to Yang. "I just want to let go of the past. I just want to move on and live my life, but life doesn't want to let me forget."_

 _"_ _Can I give you some advice here?" Yang asked, to which the black-haired girl nodded. The blonde had always made sure to ask if Blake wanted advice before giving it, which was something Blake was extremely grateful for, sometimes just wanting to vent. For once, however, Blake was perfectly okay with receiving advice on her dilemma._

 _"_ _You can't ever really forget the past. What happened to you is what made you who you are. Sometimes, especially with the big things, you can't really move past them entirely. You have to embrace them, be unapologetically you. Once you have come to terms with it, understanding it as part of yourself, you can make peace with the past."_

* * *

Blake stared at the bow in her hands, thinking about the blonde's words that day. _Be unapologetically you._ She wasn't _entirely_ sure if just putting on a bow counted as being herself unapologetically, but it was most certainly being herself. Blake Belladonna, the girl with the bow and the hipster clothes. The girl who gave off _author vibes_.

Carefully, she raised the bow to the top of her head. Tying it was second nature, as she had done it every single day for many years. The black bow felt right in the mirror, the accessory that really brought her look all together. Not because it looked good with the outfit, but it completed _her_ look of Blake Belladonna.

The doorknob rattled, a test that Yang and Blake had established to see if the other was done changing.

"You're good," Blake called out, taking a few more moments to fluff up her hair in the mirror.

Yang entered the room, the blonde looking quite a bit more awake. Her face had been cleaned up, and her lilac eyes were wide awake. Her hair was not yet perfect, but the first round of brushing from the bathroom had pushed it to a more manageable state. She dropped her own bathroom caddy on the bin beneath her bed, in its normal position. The blonde got a look at Blake, taking in her roommate's outfit for the day.

"You know, if I didn't know you, that outfit would make me play one of my favorite games: Lesbian or art major?" Yang chuckled slightly.

Blake rolled her eyes in the mirror, adjusting her bow slightly. "Neither."

Yang put on an overly-dramatic thoughtful expression, raising her hand to stroke her face while she 'thought'. "Bisexual English major… Close enough. That's like, halfway there, on both fronts."

Blake rose an eyebrow. "I get the bisexuality, but English being _half_ an art?"

Yang's eyes went wide, realizing her mistake. "Well, you're a writer, which is an art. Technically you aren't an arts major, but you make art, and want to make art for a living. So you're like, half an arts major."

Blake turned, putting a hand on one of her hips as she looked Yang straight in the eye. "You're just making this shit up to cover your ass, aren't you?"

Yang glanced down at the ground. "…Maybe."

Blake chuckled and rolled her eyes again. "You can't slip that by me, blondie. You should know that by now. I'll give you one thing, Yang. You're great at thinking on your feet. You'd probably be pretty good at improv."

"You really think so?" Yang's lilac eyes lit up like a kid on Christmas Day.

Blake nodded, amused by the response her statement had solicited. "You're pretty damn funny, Yang."

The blonde shrugged slightly. "I was considering auditioning for this improv troupe on campus, but I really wasn't sure if I should."

"Yang Xiao Long is unsure if she should try something at college? Yang 'Try Everything Once' Xiao Long is unsure? Yang 'Blake You Can't Wall Yourself Up You Have To Enjoy College' Xiao Long is _unsure_?" Blake smirked.

Yang stuck her tongue out at the black-haired girl. "I can only fake it 'till I make it so far before I actually start to question myself." The blonde took a moment to think. "I wonder what the reaction of a judge would be if I tried to change my middle name to 'Blake You Can't Wall Yourself Up You Have To Enjoy College'. How fast do you think that'd get shut down?"

Blake chuckled slightly. "Instantly. But seriously, I think you should do it. It doesn't hurt to try." The black-haired girl picked up her own bathroom caddy, preparing to leave the room so Yang could get dressed.

Yang smiled softly at her roommate. "Thanks, Blake. I think I will." Just before the black-haired girl left the room, the blonde said one more thing. "By the way, I love the bow."

Blake's smile spread widely. "Thanks."


	9. Chapter 9

Yang was walking briskly through the halls of the Student Union. She'd walked Blake to the center of campus, on the opposite side of the street from BU Crater, per Blake's request. The two had made a brief stop in the coffee shop in the food court of the Union, as Blake had promised. The two had enjoyed muffins before Yang walked Blake to her morning class, just a few buildings over from the Union.

Now, Yang was making her way towards the Queer Center, which resided on the top floor of the Student Union. It was her go-to stop in the time between Blake's first class and her own first class. When Yang showed up around midday, there would always be the same group of people hanging out in the center. She'd learned very fast that the mornings were _much_ more boring.

Yang entered the Queer Center to see the only other student at the center in the mornings, Coco Adel. Coco was a student employee at the center, and essentially got paid to sit at the front desk in the mornings and do homework. She'd been extremely happy once she realized that Yang was now the _only_ regular visitor to the QC in the mornings, most students either in class or still in bed. Coco had taken well to her newfound friend, seeing Yang as a bit of a younger version of herself.

"Well, well, well. Looked what the cat dragged in." The brunette peered over the top of her designer sunglasses.

"Jeez, Coco. I swear, you have a different pair of sunglasses for every day of the week. Besides, we're inside! Why do you need them on still?" Yang asked, leaning on the counter at the front desk.

"Fashion _never_ rests, Yang." Coco pushed her sunglasses back onto her nose properly so she was no longer looking over the top of them.

The blonde rolled her eyes and smirked. "I don't know, Coco. My hair is _pretty_ fashionable, and even it takes rests sometimes. My bedhead is certainly an adventure on its own."

Coco glanced down at the sketchpad on the desk in front of her. "Pull up a chair, Yang. I need your opinions on this sketch. I'm pretty… stuck."

Yang chuckled softly as she tugged a chair over to the side of the desk. "Coco Adel, top of her class in the BU School of Fashion and Design, is stuck?" The blonde couldn't see through the sunglasses as she sat down, but she was most certain she had solicited a long glare from the brunette.

"We're supposed to design something with fall in mind. Something simple, practical, and not extremely expensive. I've got a general idea, but it's missing… something." Coco handed Yang the sketchpad.

The blonde looked over the sketch carefully. The design was fairly… familiar to Yang. A tight black shirt lay under an open, an extremely oversized, brown and dark red flannel. The cartoon girl wore black skinny jeans, half covered by brown knee-high boots. The outfit only had one accessory, an infinity scarf of the same deep-red color on the flannel.

The outfit appeared to Yang like one of Blake's many outfits, just more mainstream. Yang expected to see this outfit on a sorority girl, pumpkin spice latte in hand. Blake's outfits were much more subtle and subdued, usually a wall of black complimented by small color changes.

"It needs more accessories." Yang finally came to a conclusion on what it was missing. "I like the design and all, it just seems very… basic. Any girl down in The Village could put this together in no-time."

"I know. I hate the assignments where we have to be 'practical'. I want to design clothes for fashion shows, not your average department store!" Coco huffed, her brow furrowing at the sight of her design.

"There can be beauty in simplicity too. You just have to," Yang gestured to one of the pencils laid out on the desk, to which Coco nodded, "know how to," Yang began to draw on the sketch, "make it special." There were a few more moments of drawing and shading before Yang handed back the sketchpad to Coco.

Coco looked down at her modified work. The only change to the drawing was a simple, black bow on the head of the sketched model. "A bow?" Coco cocked an eyebrow at the blonde.

Yang nodded. "It's simple, yet unique. You don't see many people sporting a bow these days. Besides, it brings the color scheme full circle. Two brown, two black, two red. It gives the outfit a touch of mystery and wonder, since most people over the age of 10 don't exactly wear bows out regularly. And, it's cute."

The brunette looked back down at the sketchpad. "Yang… This is… Absolutely perfect!" The fashionista squealed out, jumping up from behind the desk to give the blonde a big hug. "I don't know where you get this stuff."

"Well, you know, hanging out with the fashion queen every morning tends to rub off on people." Yang chuckled slightly.

Coco returned to her seat. "Speaking of… You never did tell me why you started coming here in the mornings. It's been what, two weeks now?"

The blonde shrugged. "Just trying to get an earlier start to my day, you know? Makes me feel better to be productive before my first class."

"You call sitting in the QC discussing fashion with me productive?" Coco asked, glancing over the top of her sunglasses.

"Well, usually I'm pretty productive before I get to the QC."

"You're sure a certain black-haired author has nothing to do with it?" Coco smirked, still glancing at Yang over the top of her sunglasses.

Yang could feel her face flush bright red. "What makes you say that?"

Coco chuckled, pushing her sunglasses back up onto her nose. "Well, for the past two weeks, you two have been joined at the hip. The only time you two are apart is when you have classes, clubs, or you're going to the gym. She hadn't even come to the QC for the first month and a half, and suddenly you've got her by your side at all times. We're all queer here, Yang. Everyone pretty much assumes you're dating."

"We aren't," Yang said flatly. "Besides, she came to the QC without me before!"

"When?"

"At Open House."

Coco pulled off her sunglasses, looking Yang straight in the eye. "You're telling me that she came to Open House, and then didn't come back until the two of you became conjoined twins?"

Yang glanced down at the desk. "Maybe."

Coco sighed. "Yang… Do you have feelings for Blake?"

The blonde looked back up at the brunette. "No, we're just roommates."

Coco shook her head, putting her sunglasses back on. "That's what I said about Velvet our freshman year. We were just roommates, until she finally opened up to me. I swear, that girl was twenty times shyer than she is now. Once she opened up, we got really close. I felt good because she trusted me, and she felt safe enough around me _to_ trust me. It just felt… right."

Yang gave Coco a weird look. _How did she just manage to describe exactly how I feel?_

"I'm gonna assume that look means you feel the same." Coco chuckled slightly, glancing back down at the sketchpad for a moment before looking back up at the blonde. "If you like her, go get her. Don't waste your time pussyfooting around."

"But I don't like her like that!" Yang exclaimed.

"Yang, you spend every moment with her. Do you walk her to class before coming here? Is that why you're here so early?" Coco asked.

"…Maybe."

"Okay, so you wake up _early_ for her, you walk her to class, you sit around and wait for her to get out of class, you spend the time _between_ her class and your class with her, you get lunch with her, you come back here immediately after your classes, you walk back to your dorm with her, you always have her practically attached to your side. And I've _seen_ the way you look at her when you think no one's looking." Coco pulled off her sunglasses again. "Look me in the eyes and tell me you don't have a crush on Blake."

Yang tried. She _really_ did. But she just couldn't. "I don't… have… I do have a crush on Blake." The blonde slumped in her chair.

The brunette smirked. "See, that wasn't so hard, was it?"

"I guess not…"

"Now all that's left to do is to tell her." Coco put her sunglasses back on.

Yang shook her head immediately. "I can't do that."

Coco rose an eyebrow at the blonde. "What do you mean?"

"She put a lot of trust in me, you know? I was the first person she opened up to in a long time. I don't want her to think I befriended her just to get her to like me back. I don't even think she wants a relationship right now, even if she did like me back… And I don't even know if she likes me back!" Yang threw her hands up in the air in defeat.

Coco shook her head. "Slow down there, cowboy. Let's take this one step at a time. First off, you haven't seen the way she looks at you when _you_ aren't looking. She totally likes you back." Coco held up one finger.

Lilac eyes lit up. "You really think so?"

"There isn't a doubt in my mind. Secondly, if she trusts you so much, that's a good sign that she has feelings for you, whether she's come to terms with it or not. It's a subconscious thing." A second finger shot up on the brunette's hand.

Yang rose an eyebrow. "Where'd you learn that, exactly?"

"I was in your same position a year ago, except there wasn't anyone older to tell me these things. So, I did some of my own research on the psychology of introverted people. It proved to be 100% correct with Vel. I could send you some of the scholarly articles, if you'd like."

Yang nodded. It wasn't that she didn't trust _Coco_ , it was that she didn't trust the unnamed research.

"Lastly, the only way to determine if she wants a relationship is to talk to her about it. That one you can't exactly get around. But, honestly Yang, I think you're pretty safe to assume she feels the same way about you." A third finger rose.

Yang was still slumped down in her seat. "I just don't want to ruin what we have. I worked really hard to develop this friendship, and it's working, and I love it. I just don't want to mess things up."

Coco sighed again. "You won't, Yang. You don't have to tell her until you get better bearings on the situation. You'll be _fine_. Seriously."

"So, those articles?" Yang asked meekly.

Coco shook her head and chuckled a bit, reaching into her backpack for her laptop. "Have a little faith, Xiao Long."

* * *

Yang spent the better part of the next hour reading up on the articles that Coco had given her. She'd learned quite a bit, and they'd been true to everything Coco had told her. A small part of Yang simply couldn't believe that she, Yang Xiao Long, hater of all things academic, was reading and researching scholarly articles for something not related to a class.

 _It's just something more important than a class._

"Hey Blake," Coco said, causing Yang to quickly look up from her laptop.

Blake was entering the QC, her backpack draped over her shoulders, looking pretty much exactly as she had that same morning. Her bow was still atop her head, causing Coco to connect the dots.

Yang flashed a smile at the black-haired girl. "Long time, no see."

Blake rolled her eyes. "You use the same lines every day."

"It's not my fault you don't appreciate my _punderful_ jokes." The blonde crossed her arms playfully.

Blake narrowed her eyes at the blonde for a moment. "You're _punbearable_."

Lilac eyes lit up to match a huge smile. "I'm rubbing off on you! You're making puns!"

The black-haired girl smirked as she rolled her eyes again. "Still haven't decided if that's a good thing or a bad thing yet."

"You know you love me and my puns."

"Debatable. Anyways, I'm going into the QC Library to get some work done." Blake jabbed her thumb towards the inside of the Queer Center.

"I'll join you!" Yang snapped her laptop shut and practically jumped out of her seat. "See you later, Coco!"

Coco nodded. "I'll come join you when I get off shift. Velvet should be back by then. By the way, Blake, love the bow."

"Thanks," Blake said with a smile.

Coco watched as the two girls headed through the main longue of the QC to head towards the library. She glanced back down at the drawing on her sketchpad and then back up at the two girls. Shaking her head slightly, she muttered to herself.

"Yang Xiao Long, you sly, sly dog."

* * *

 **AN:**

What's this? Two chapters in 2 days? Woah, I'm on top of my shit! (For once...)

We're gonna play a little game in the next few chapters. How many people do you think Yang and Blake are going to talk to in order to fully realize _and_ be convinced to admit their feelings for each other? Leave your guesses in the reviews!

In other news, next week I go back to school for another semester. This could mean 1 of 2 things: 1. Me actually adapting a regular updating schedule and getting ahead on my writing 2. Me ending up with unholy amounts of work and having an even _more_ random updating schedule than I currently have. We'll see where that goes and I'll keep you all updated on how my new set of classes treats me.

Thank you all so much for your support! I appreciate every review, follow, and favorite. We're almost at 100 follows at the time of posting this, which is _insane_ to me. Thanks again, I hope you enjoyed!


	10. Chapter 10

Blake sighed, looking around the library of the Queer Center from one of the two couches.

Blake had been absolutely amazed with the room when she'd first found it. The two shorter walls were covered in shelves of various DVDs and VHS tapes of movies and TV shows with queer related topics. The other two walls, the longer walls, had bookshelves with books with either queer characters or queer topics. One day, she'd like to read all those books. She was admittedly a little ignorant when it came to queer topics.

Blake hadn't ever really been someone who was very knowledgeable or vocal about her sexuality. She originally wasn't even going to go to the QC open house, but she had gone in an attempt to _get away_ from Yang. Blake hadn't really expected her roommate to also be there. She'd never really told _anyone_ about her sexuality before Yang, not even _him_. Blake couldn't even begin to imagine _his_ reaction if _he_ had ever found out she was bisexual.

Blake shook her head. That part of her life was _over_. She didn't have to worry about _him_ anymore. _He_ was going to jail. She was at school, she had friends, and she was done with _him_ forever.

Well, almost forever.

Blake shook her head again. Nope. Not happening right now.

Blake looked back at her laptop screen and sighed. A blank document filled the screen. She had an assignment for one of her larger creative writing class she'd gotten earlier that day, but basically no inspiration. She was supposed to take a commonly known fairy tale and give it her own twist.

 _Fairy tales? I don't know anything about fairy tales. The last time I read a fairy tale… I was four or five maybe? I don't even know any off the top off my head…_

Blake looked at the screen again, furrowing her brow. She'd had her fair cases of writer's block in her time, but this was the first time that she literally had _no clue_ where to even _start_.

The door to the QC library creaked open. Blake looked up to see a blonde boy in an open button-down shirt entering the room. The boy tossed his backpack on the couch that Blake wasn't sitting on.

Blake rolled her eyes at the boy. "It's October 30th, and you still can't close your damn shirt?"

"Hey, these are Sun Wukong trademark abs! They deserve to be shown off." The blonde boy smiled goofily as he collapsed onto his couch with a sigh.

Blake shook her head and chuckled slightly. "I can't wait till we get our first snowstorm and I see you trudging in here with your damn shirt still open."

Sun shrugged. "There's a price to pay for beauty, Blake. It's a price I'm more than willing to pay, and I'm certainly already paying it. It's damn cold out, even now."

"Have you ever even _seen_ snow, Sun?"

The blonde boy gave a small shrug. "Nope, can't say I have."

Blake smirked. "I can't wait to see if you actually hold through to the open-shirt policy. Winters up here are _far_ more different than they are in the South, you know. The Northeast actually has these things called _seasons_ , in case you didn't notice the leaves changing outside and the air getting colder. It's going to only get _worse_ from here."

"We'll see how it goes." Sun gave a cocky grin.

* * *

Blake remembered when she'd first met the blonde boy.

Sun was one of Blake's classmates in her creative writing class. Blake hadn't given Sun a second thought to until their third week of school, in which they had to write poetry on what childhood meant to them.

After a shorter assignment, the professor took the time to read all of the works before having the students share. The students in the class had either the option to volunteer to read their piece or the professor would have a few pre-selected a few works to read anonymously. A few people read out poems about happy childhoods, something Blake couldn't relate to at all. She even found herself rolling her eyes at a couple of the cliché poems that tried so hard to be "deep", but were in reality as shallow as a kiddie pool. Sun had volunteered last, the professor immediately selecting him as his hand went up.

 _"_ _Childhood_

 _Childhood is being unsure_

 _Not knowing if you're safe_

 _If you'll be loved_

 _How long today's home will last._

 _Childhood is an uncertain future_

 _Not knowing where you'll be_

 _In 10 years_

 _5 years_

 _Tomorrow._

 _Childhood is waiting_

 _Never-ending anxiety_

 _For a forever family_

 _That will never come._

 _Childhood_

 _Does not exist_

 _When you're a foster kid."_

Blake had been absolutely _blown away_ by Sun's poem. Not many people in the class had understood the true meaning of Sun's poem, but each word spoke directly to Blake. It perfectly described her own experience, the sources of her own anxieties.

Still, Blake had found herself unable to talk to the boy for some time. She couldn't find the words she wanted to say to the boy. Anything she'd thought up had _Hey, I know you're a foster kid, I was one too! Wanna share horror stories?_ The idea of saying something like that terrified Blake. The idea of talking to a stranger about her past was impossible to the black-haired girl.

All of this, of course, had occurred well before Blake had begun to get close to Yang. She'd somewhat forgotten about the blonde-haired boy until her first visit to the Queer Center with Yang. It was there the two had actually begun to talk, and Blake had learned a bit more about the blonde boy's past. Sun, like Blake, was a foster kid. However, unlike Blake. Sun was an out-of-state student from one of the most Southern states in the country, a fact that had confused Blake since she had learned it.

* * *

Blake had gotten nowhere with her writing assignment, despite a half hour passing since she "began". At the very least, her page was no longer blank. Instead, the required header was in the top left of the first page. Other than that, there was no content. No story, no title, no nothing.

The black-haired girl sighed, drawing the attention of the blonde boy. Sun looked up from his laptop, on which he had been typing away.

"Writer's block?" he asked, smirking.

Blake nodded, rubbing her temple. "I don't know a damn thing about fairy tales."

"Isn't that what you have the Internet for? Research?" Sun rose an eyebrow.

"Yeah, I guess." Blake was silent for a moment, before speaking again. "Sun, can I ask you a question?"

"Shoot."

"Why'd you come all the way to Beacon? Didn't your state offer some sort of deal to foster kids for in-state schools?"

Sun paused for a moment. "The schools in my state weren't all that great, and I still managed to get a decent amount of aid. Besides, I had someone that _really_ wanted me to come here."

"Wouldn't happen to be a certain blue-haired basketball player, would it?' Blake smirked.

"…Perhaps."

Blake rolled her eyes. "Oh, come on Sun, everyone knows about you and Neptune. You couldn't be any more obvious about it."

Sun rose an eyebrow. "Oh, I could think of someone who's a bit more obvious about it. A certain blonde girl and a certain black-haired girl that are basically joined at the hip when one isn't in a class."

Blake's face flushed bright red. "There's nothing going on between Yang and I."

"Sure, Blake. You keep telling yourself that."

"This is about you, not me." Blake huffed.

The blonde boy crossed his arms. "Yeah, I came to BU for Neptune. We met online the summer before my senior year of high school. He got me extra aid once I got accepted into the school. It's a perk to dating one of the school's biggest basketball prodigies. That's why I came here, all the way up North to Beacon."

Blake chuckled. "A bisexual, blue haired, basketball star dating a bisexual foster kid. You two sound like a goddamn Lifetime movie."

"Again, you don't have much room to talk."

Blake narrowed her eyes. "Sun, there's nothing going on between Yang and I."

Sun shook his head. "Somehow, I don't believe that. The two of you are constantly together, and I've seen the way you look at her when she's not looking. And I've seen the way _she_ looks at _you_ when _you_ aren't looking. The only people who don't know that something is going on between the two of you _is the two of you_."

"Wait, she what now?" Blake closed her laptop, sitting forwards in her seat.

The blonde boy rolled his eyes. "She looks at you too, when you aren't looking."

"Seriously?"

"Blake, I wouldn't lie to you about that. It's pretty obvious she likes you too."

The black-haired girl crossed her arms. "Who said anything about me liking Yang?"

"Are you trying to tell me that you don't have feeling for Yang?"

"I don't. We're just roommates and friends, that's all."

"Blake, what's your average day like?" Sun asked.

Blake rose an eyebrow at the blonde boy. "What's that have to do with anything?"

"Just answer the question."

Amber eyes narrowed at blue eyes. "Well, I wake up, get ready and all that. I go to breakfast with Yang, then Yang walks me to class, then I meet Yang at the QC, and then I hang out with Yang until she goes to class. Then when she gets back she walks me to my next class, and then she comes to get me after class and we get lunch, and then… I spend my entire day with Yang oh my god." Blake's eyes widened in realization.

Sun nodded slowly. "Yeah, you do. You don't exactly mark me as a very social person, yet you seem fairly comfortable spending your entire day with the same person day after day."

Blake leaned back in her chair, her arms still crossed as she thought. "Just because I spend a lot of time with her doesn't mean I like her."

"Why do you spend a lot of time with her then?" Sun asked, crossing his arms.

"I… because I trust her. I spend a lot of time with her because I opened up to her about my past and she didn't freak out. She just wanted to help me out. And she gives really good hugs when I'm upset. She's nice and she's caring and she's really fun to be around. She's…" Blake's ramblings stopped mid-sentence.

"Keep going," Sun nodded.

Blake glanced down at the ground. "She's really pretty and when she smiles it feels like my heart is going to explode and I feel so at ease around her and she's the first person I've met who makes me genuinely happy just by existing near me."

"And…?"

"I like Yang."

"There it is!" Sun smiled.

Blake shook her head. "I… shouldn't like Yang. That's like, the number one rule of being queer in college. Don't date your roommate. It's always a bad idea."

"Not always," Sun chimed.

Blake looked up at him, confused. "What do you mean?"

"You know Coco and Velvet, the sophomores that work here?" The black-haired girl nodded in response to the blonde boy's question. "They were roommates freshman year and got together, and they're doing just fine."

"Seriously?" Blake asked, raising an eyebrow.

Sun gave a nod. "Yeah, 100%. Talk to Velvet about it if you want. It's not _usually_ a good idea, but there are circumstances where it works. It's not impossible, that's for sure."

Blake opened her mouth to speak again, but was interrupted by a furious vibration in her pocket. She pulled out her phone to see the text that had caused the interruption on the screen.

 _Y: There's a Halloween party at the QC tomorrow, you wanna go with me?_

Blake blinked at her phone screen.

"You good, Blake?" Sun asked.

The black-haired girl nodded. "Just the blonde in question inviting me to come with her to the QC Halloween party tomorrow. I'm just not exactly sure what that means."

"Why don't you just _ask her_ what she means?" Sun rose an eyebrow at the girl.

Blake shook her head. "I have to talk to Velvet first, before I even consider taking any outing with Yang as a date."

Sun shrugged. "Suit yourself. But you better not ditch on that party, date or not. The QC Halloween party is pretty great, from what Nep tells me."

"It's not a party-party, right? Since it's school sponsored and all?" Blake asked.

Sun shook his head. "No alcohol or the like. School sponsored, like you said."

Blake gave a small nod, and began tapping on her phone.

 _B: I'd love to, but I don't have a costume. :(_

 _Y: We can run down to BU Center after dinner. There's gotta be something left laying around_

 _B: That works._

 _Y: I've got a workout with Nora after class, mind if I invite her and Ren to dinner with us?_

 _B: Fine by me._

 _Y: Ya know, it doesn't shock me that you use super proper grammar in texts. Kinda amazed you even put in a frowny face_

 _B: Your lack of punctuation_ wounds _me._

 _Y: You should see how my sister types. She's still all like, LOL RANDOM XD even though she's 16 years old_

 _B: …Please never give her my number. I might_ actually _explode._

 _Y: So I should tell her to text you now, right?_

 _B: Do that, and I'll change my number and not give you my new one._

 _Y:_ You _wound me, Blake._

 _B: Proper punctuation! Proud of you, Xiao Long!_

 _Y: :P See you at dinner, Belladonna._

Blake shook her head and smiled at her phone.

"You totally like her," Sun said with a smirk.

Blake picked up a pillow from the couch and chucked it at the blonde boy, who continued laughing lightly. Rolling her eyes, Blake opened back up her laptop. It was time to research some fairy tales, ignore Sun's remarks, and wait for Velvet.

 _I seriously have a crush on Yang. What the hell do I do now?_

* * *

 **AN:**

What a chapter! I had a lot of fun writing that one, for a number of reasons. I wanted to make a couple of little points about this chapter.

1\. I'm (barely) an author, not a poet. Pretend that poem was actually good.

2\. I absolutely _love_ the idea of Blake blubbering uncontrollably about Yang. I'm usually not one for run-on sentences, but I couldn't help but make an exception for one of my children blubbering about the other.

3\. I'm all about the Seamonkeys. As someone once described, I'm "a wall of neverending gay". In case you hadn't noticed, most of this fic has involved gay ships. There are more to come, but a couple of straight ships too. I've got Renora feels, what can I say.

Thanks always for the support! I appreciate all your reviews, favorites, and follows! At the time of posting this, we're at 99 followers on this fic. That's amazing! Thank you all so much for everything, it really makes my day to see such a positive response to my little slice of bumbleby!


	11. Chapter 11

**AN** :

Woah! I live! I apologize for how long it took me to get this chapter out... I've had a really rough month. Got back to school, got my ass thoroughly _kicked_ (and it's still being kicked) by my new classes, got one date, got stood up and dumped, rushed a frat, got into said frat (yay! queer frats are cool), scraped by day-to-day with huge piles of homework... It has been a wild ride. I originally intended on having this chapter out for Valentine's day, but my _wonderful_ stats professor decided that the best valentine's day gift is an exam, so things got pushed back a couple days. Plus, I rewrote Nora's bits like three times because I felt like I was really struggling to encompass her character. Renora is my second favorite ship (Yay V4 finale!), so I really wanted to do them justice and decided a delay was better than having Nora's story up to my liking.

I hope you all are having a good 2017 so far! I hope to be more regular with my updates, but this is entirely dependent on my workload for a certain week. One of my classes has an 8 page paper coming up, followed by a 15 page paper a few days after, so, we'll see how well I can hold to the whole "regular updates" thing. I want to update at least once every two weeks, once a week ideally, but we'll see if I can actually hold myself to these goals. Since I no longer have regular episodes of RWBY to anticipate, I just spend my time walking to classes listening to "Armed and Ready" and silently screaming about the bumbleby references and yelling at myself that I need to write more.

 _Anyways_ , I hope you enjoy this long awaited chapter! Chapters 9-12 all take place on the same day, for timeline reference, but things are starting to move in a forward direction for our favorite bees! Thank you all so much for your neverending support, I love reading all your reviews so much!

* * *

The gym in the recreation center was one of Yang's favorite locations on campus. The smell of sweat and determination, the sound of the machines, the feeling of a good workout… It was Yang's personal heaven.

Well, it _would_ have been her personal heaven if the rec center's gym was a reasonable size for the number of students who attended Beacon University. The place would have been suitable for a school with a student population about a third of the size of Beacon. For this reason, Yang found herself at the gym during the most unconventional of hours: extremely early on the weekends, including Saturday mornings with her Criminal Justice group, and on weekdays, the typical dinner rush hour at the dining halls. It usually left the gym with little waits for the various machines, something that Yang greatly enjoyed.

The blonde entered the recreation center with her gym bag slung over her shoulder. The scent hit her nose before she could take one step into the actual gym itself. _Strong, yet mildly disgusting. Just the way I love it._

The path to the locker room led through the gym itself, past all of the machines. A handful of students were strung about the room, but only in small clusters. At least half of the machines were empty, as they usually were around this time in the evening. Yang spotted Nora among the treadmills, who had just begun her warmup with a run. The energetic redhead nodded towards the blonde, a wicked smile on her face.

"You are _late_ , Xiao Long! That's 20 extra pushups for you!" Nora called out, her eccentric voice ringing throughout the gym.

Yang shook her head, smiling to herself. Nora was the craziest workout partner Yang had ever regularly worked out with. The blonde was hoping the redhead would give her a little break, considering the story she was about to tell her. Still, Yang had doubts. Nora was most certainly a "No excuses!" type of girl.

After a swift change of clothes in the locker room, Yang returned to the main room of the gym, her bag tucked safely away in a locker, locked up with her own personal padlock. Nora had finished her warmup run, and was waiting for Yang before moving on to the next step of her workout.

"Drop and give me twenty, Xiao Long!" Nora declared, pointing at the ground.

"Nora, I have had the wildest day, let me tell you," Yang started, but the redhead shook her head, interrupting the blonde.

"You know the rules! You were late, so you have to do twenty pushups. Then you can tell me your story."

Yang sighed, dropping to the ground. Twenty pushups wasn't exactly difficult for Yang, but it was still time consuming. The blonde's mind burned with thoughts of her dilemma with Blake, mildly annoyed that the advice she sought out was pushed off even longer.

Yang had gone about her day as normal, mostly spending her time with Blake, as usual. She'd had to pretend that nothing had changed, but it was absolutely _killing_ Yang inside. Her heart had tightened up at so much as the sight of the black-haired girl. Had Coco been telling Yang the truth about Blake? Blake looked at her when she wasn't looking? It had been driving the blonde _insane_ all day.

Nora smiled at the blonde when she rose from her completed push-ups. "That was your fastest time yet. This is about to be a damn good story, isn't it?"

Yang shook her head. "It's less of a story and more of a request for advice."

"Hmm..." Nora glanced over at the machines. "A little wait won't kill anyone. I'll do another little warm up later."

Yang scratched the back of her head with her hand, thinking on how to start to explain everything she was feeling right now. "You and Ren… You're together, right?"

Nora's eyes lit up at the mention of Ren. "We're together-together, if that's what you mean."

Yang nodded. "How long have you two been um, together-together?"

"We started dating in our freshman year of high school. It'll be four years in about two months!"

"Damn, that's a long time. Okay, so, how did you know you liked him? And how did you know he liked you back?" Yang asked, still scratching the back of her head.

Nora shook her head, a smile filling her face. The redhead spoke fast, her words filled with excitement and happiness. "Ren and I knew each other for years! We'd been best, best, best friends since Kindergarten! His parents decided that he needed to go to a private school for middle school and high school which was _soooooo_ stupid, but then Ren's dad lost his job so he ended up back in public school for high school and I was _soooo_ happy to have my friend back because it was _sooo_ hard to keep up hanging out outside of school when his school didn't get out until 5 p.m.! We started hanging out again more and I totally fell _super hard_ for him within the first two months of our freshman year. I was _super_ scared that he didn't feel the same way so I didn't say anything for a while but then he asked me to the winter formal and I said yes and he admitted he had feelings for me and kissed me and oooh! It makes me so happy just thinking about it."

Yang watched the redhead bounce around with excitement and chuckled a little. "So you didn't know he liked you back until he asked you to the dance?"

Nora shook her head. "Not a clue. I was convinced I was totally crushing one-sided and it had me crazy nervous for the longest time. I kind of wish I'd said something sooner, but things worked out pretty great anyways!"

Nora abruptly ended her bouncing, raising an eyebrow suspiciously at the blonde. "Why do you wanna know so much about Ren and I?"

Yang sighed, rubbing her arm. "You can't tell _anyone_ this, Nora. Not even Ren, until I figure things out for myself."

The redhead snapped to attention, crossing her heart with her finger. "Not a peep."

"I… have a crush on Blake and I don't really know how to go about dealing with it."

Nora's gleeful bouncing returned once again. "Oh my _gosh_! Yang that's so _cute_!"

Yang's cheeks flushed brighter red than a tomato. "It's serious, Nora. I don't know how to go about telling her."

An orange eyebrow rose. "Wait, is she even gay?"

The words got caught in Yang's throat. Everyone on the floor of the dorm knew Yang was gay. Between the rainbow flag hung proudly above her bed, clearly on display whenever her dorm room door was often (a nearly nightly occurrence), her never ending array of gay jokes, and her days being mostly spent at the Queer Center, everyone knew. But, none of their neighbors knew about Blake being bisexual. She only ever hung around with Yang, and most of Yang's friends from the floor had attributed the late addition to their friend group to social anxiety. Blake's flag that she had acquired at the Queer Center open house had remained locked away inside of her desk. No one but Yang knew the truth about Blake.

Yang knew she had two options here. Tell Nora the truth, and violate the promise she'd made to Blake on the day of the open house, or lie to Nora and end up with advice for a situation she wasn't in. Knowing this, she chose her words very carefully after a few moments of silence between the pair.

"I have reason to believe that she's some form of not straight. And a mutual friend told me she thinks Blake likes me back."

Nora wiggled her eyebrows, her smile growing wider. "Well, silly, just ask her out then!"

Yang scratched the back of her head. "It's… not that simple. I don't know for sure, and I don't want to end up being wrong and making a fool out of myself and ruining our friendship. And we literally _live_ together. It'd be so awkward if I messed this up."

Nora shook her head. "Don't waste your time on what ifs, Yang! If you want it, just do it!"

"I…" Yang stammered.

Nora crossed her arms. "No, no. I waited two months to tell Ren how I felt and that was two months too many. The semester is already halfway over! College is supposed to be the greatest years of our lives! Do you really want to spend the second half of your first semester tip-toeing around the truth?"

"No…" Yang looked down at the ground. "But-."

"No buts!" Nora cut her off. "We're going to work out, you're going to shower, and then we're going to go back to the dorm and tell Blake how you feel!"

"I kind of wanted to wait until tomorrow, at the very least."

Nora's eyes narrowed. "And what, Xiao Long, is the reason for that?"

Yang began rubbing her arm nervously again. "I invited her to come with me to the Queer Center Halloween party. She said yes. I was going to tell her tomorrow, after the party."

The redhead's eyes quickly lit up, her whole body bouncing up and down, her voice increasing in volume and level of squealing. " _Ohmygosh_ that's so _cute!_ "

"Nora, please. People are staring." Lilac eyes glanced around at the other gym-goers nervously.

Nora huffed. "Well, _gee_ , I'm sorry for getting excited about my friends' _super cute_ budding relationship!"

Yang smirked. "You can still be excited, just a little bit quieter."

"Wait a second… Yang, why'd you ask me for advice if you already wanted to tell her tomorrow?" Nora asked.

The blonde shrugged. "I wanted to see if you thought it was a good idea."

"It's a _wonderful_ idea Yang! Oooh, you gotta tell me how it went! _Ohmygosh_ , we can go on double dates!" Nora was back to bouncing in excitement again.

Yang chuckled, placing a hand on the redhead's shoulder to provide force against the bouncing. "Woah now, slow down there. She has to say yes before double dates are even in the picture." The blonde suddenly realized that she'd forgotten about what she'd told Blake regarding that night's dinner. "Actually, do you and Ren want to catch dinner with Blake and I tonight after our workout? We were going to hit up Beacon Center too and scrounge for any last-minute Halloween costume for the party tomorrow. I figured you'd be a decent help in fighting through all the other people who also waited until the day before Halloween to get a costume."

Nora nodded faster than Yang thought could ever be possible. "Ooh! I'd _love_ to! Let me text Ren, and then we can finally get this workout started!"

Yang smiled in return. "I'll get started on my warmup."

"You better, Xiao Long! We're _wayyy_ behind schedule!" The energetic redhead bounced off towards the locker room, to retrieve her phone stuffed in her bag inside her locker.


	12. Chapter 12: This Fic is Moving!

**AN** :

Hello friends and pals! It's been a long time since this story was updated. Nearly a year!

So, where have I been? Well, gosh, it has been QUITE the year for me. Around the time I stopped updating this fic, I started coming out as trans. I started Testosterone, had a wild year, and generally, fell out of writing for a bit. For the past several months, I've been slowly piecing together a newly modified, more coherent, more flushed out timeline in preparation for a rewrite.

However, I don't intend on creating the rewrite on this account. It's got my deadname attached to it, and yeah, I can change the account name, but honestly, I wanted to start fresh with a re-brand. So, the rewite will be under a new account, which can be found under SuperbBirb here on FF net, or on AO3. I also have a fanfiction blog for chapter updates as well, located at superbbirbfics on tumblr!

I plan on updating the chapters weekly for some time, and may eventually switch to bi-weekly, depending on how hard school ends up killing me when the semester starts back up. The first chapter will either be uploaded this week or next week, depending on how the beta-reading goes. If you'd like to see this story revitalized and reworked into hopefully something really amazing, please give my new account a follow!

Thank you all so much for all of your support so far, I really hope you'll enjoy the rewritten version if you decide to read it!


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